A Night of Violent Storms Across India's Largest State
In the late evening hours of Wednesday, May 13, 2026, a powerful and fast-moving storm system descended on Uttar Pradesh — the most populous state in India, home to more than 240 million people — and proceeded to tear through dozens of districts over the course of the following 36 to 48 hours with an intensity that rescue officials, meteorologists, and government administrators described as extraordinary. The storms brought a devastating combination of heavy rain, large hail, ferocious lightning, and winds strong enough to uproot mature trees, collapse walls, overturn vehicles, and hurl human beings into the air. By the afternoon of May 14, Uttar Pradesh Relief Commissioner Harikesh Bhaskar had confirmed that at least 104 people had been killed across the state, with 52 others injured. The Integrated Control and Command Centre in Lucknow was operating around the clock, and Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath had issued orders for immediate field inspections and the prompt release of compensation to all affected families.
The geographic spread of the casualty figures underlines the scale of the disaster. No single district or region bore the entire burden — instead, the storm system moved across a wide swathe of Uttar Pradesh in a pattern that left almost no major district untouched. Prayagraj, the holy city at the confluence of the Ganga, Yamuna, and Saraswati rivers, emerged as the worst-affected single district. Preliminary reports placed the death toll there at between 21 and 30 people, though local officials cautioned that figures remained subject to revision as rescue and assessment teams reached more remote areas. Within Prayagraj district alone, specific sub-districts bore heavy losses: at least seven deaths were confirmed in Handia, four in Phulpur, three in Soraon, two in Meja, and one in Sadar. Bhadohi district reported at least 16 fatalities. Fatehpur Additional District Magistrate Avinash Tripathi confirmed nine deaths in his district, with 16 more injured. Trees and electric poles were uprooted in several areas of Fatehpur, and numerous homes were damaged by the combination of wind and falling structures.
The Man Who Was Thrown Into the Sky: Bareilly's Viral Moment
Among the dozens of remarkable and harrowing scenes documented across Uttar Pradesh during the storm, one image and account became the defining visual of the disaster almost immediately after it was published. In Bareilly district, a labourer identified as Nanhe Mian was working at an outdoor worksite when the storm struck with sudden and extreme force. The wind, carrying a section of tin roofing, swept Nanhe Mian off the ground and threw him approximately 80 feet — some accounts placed the distance at close to 50 feet into the air before he was hurled laterally into an adjacent field. Video footage of the incident, verified and published by Press Trust of India and ANI, showed a figure being carried through the grey storm sky alongside sheets of displaced roofing material, in a scene that multiple news agencies described as almost beyond belief. Press Trust of India reported that Nanhe Mian was one of four or five people present at the worksite when the wind swept them and the structure they were near simultaneously.
Nanhe Mian survived. He was found in the field where he had landed and was taken for emergency medical treatment, where doctors discovered he had suffered a significant bone fracture requiring a metal plate to be inserted, in addition to multiple injuries across his body. Speaking to ANI from his hospital bed, he recounted what he had experienced: he was working when the storm struck, the structure around him began to lift into the air, and the next thing he was aware of was that he had been thrown a considerable distance and was injured. He expressed awareness that his survival was extremely fortunate given the force involved. His account and the video footage of his airborne moment circulated rapidly across social media platforms in India and internationally, becoming one of the most widely viewed pieces of footage from the disaster within hours of its publication.
District-by-District: The Full Scale of the Destruction
Beyond the headline death and injury figures, the scale of the structural destruction wrought by the May 13 storm system across Uttar Pradesh was severe. More than 80 homes were damaged across various districts, along with numerous commercial and agricultural structures, electric poles, and trees. The loss of livestock was also significant: official reports indicated that 114 heads of cattle were killed in the storms. The combination of physical damage to homes and infrastructure with the loss of livestock represents a compounding economic blow for the rural and semi-rural communities that make up the majority of Uttar Pradesh's population — communities in which a single cow or buffalo can represent a substantial share of a family's productive assets.
The India Meteorological Department had issued weather warnings for multiple regions of Uttar Pradesh on May 13, forecasting strong thunderstorm activity with the possibility of lightning and gusty winds. However, the speed and intensity of the system that actually developed exceeded forecast parameters in several areas, catching residents and emergency services with limited time to prepare. The characteristic suddenness of thunderstorm development in the Indo-Gangetic plain during the transition between the dry pre-monsoon season and the monsoon itself — a period known locally as the kal baisakhi season in some regions — means that even when forecasts are broadly accurate, individual storm cells can intensify to dangerous levels faster than community warning systems can effectively communicate.
Additional District Magistrate Kunwar Virendra Kumar Maurya of Prayagraj confirmed that electric poles and trees had been uprooted across several areas, and that many houses in the district had been significantly damaged. In some sub-districts, residents reported that the storm arrived with little warning and that the combination of darkness and the speed of the wind's onset meant that people had virtually no time to find shelter before structures began to fail. In several cases, deaths resulted from people being struck by falling trees while moving outdoors during the storm — a pattern of casualty consistent with the experience of previous severe storm events in the state.
Government Response and Political Dimensions
Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath activated the state disaster response machinery immediately upon receiving reports of deaths and injuries. He directed all district-level officials to provide immediate assistance to victims, personally reviewed the situation with senior state officials, and ordered the prompt release of compensation funds to families of the deceased and injured. The Integrated Control and Command Centre in Lucknow, which serves as the state's primary emergency coordination facility, was placed on continuous 24-hour operation, with officials conducting field visits to affected areas alongside the provision of financial relief at the district level.
The international response to the disaster reflected the scale of its human impact. Russian President Vladimir Putin sent a personal message of condolence to President Droupadi Murmu and Prime Minister Narendra Modi, expressing pain at the suffering caused by the cyclone and severe storms, extending sympathy to the families of those who had died, and wishing a swift recovery to those injured. The Russian Kremlin confirmed the message on May 15. The condolences from Moscow, arriving at a moment when India's international diplomatic engagement is particularly active, were noted by Indian media as a signal of the continued warmth of the bilateral relationship. Prime Minister Modi, who departed on May 15 on a five-nation diplomatic tour, was briefed on the UP storm situation before his departure.
Further Storms Forecast: More Districts on Alert for May 15
As the immediate emergency response to the May 13 disaster continued, meteorologists warned that the weather threat to Uttar Pradesh had not passed. Forecasts for May 15 indicated further thunderstorm activity across multiple regions of the state, with additional warnings for gusty winds reaching up to 60 kilometres per hour in some areas. Southern parts of the state were also under heatwave advisories, reflecting the volatile and unstable atmospheric conditions characteristic of the pre-monsoon transition period. Officials urged residents in affected areas to remain indoors during adverse weather, to stay away from open spaces and tall trees during thunderstorm activity, and to follow guidance from district authorities and the India Meteorological Department.
The May 13 storms in Uttar Pradesh represent the deadliest single weather event in the state in recent memory, and the images and accounts emerging from the disaster — from the shattered homes of Prayagraj to the extraordinary footage of Nanhe Mian being lifted into the storm sky above Bareilly — have placed the human cost of India's severe pre-monsoon weather firmly in the public consciousness at the start of what may prove to be a difficult and volatile meteorological season across the subcontinent.