Officials in northern and western India said Thursday a strong dust and rain storm overnight killed at least 78 people.
The storms brought down trees and power lines, and caused houses to collapse in Uttar Pradesh and Rajasthan states.
In addition to those killed, the storms also injured more than 100 other people.
The storms caught people in the affected areas by surprise because the monsoon season is still more than six weeks away.
There are power and telephone outages in the regions after the storms damaged electric poles.
