False alarm again: City gets light showers amidst heavy rain alerts

After the orange alert for heavy to very heavy rainfall predicted for Sunday and Monday going wrong, the yellow alert of the India Meteorological Department’s (IMD) for heavy rain predicted in Chandigarh, Mohali, Panchkula and other parts of Punjab and Haryana for Tuesday also proved incorrect as the tricity region just got light showers today.

However, the weathermen have re-issued a yellow alert for heavy rain coupled with thunderstorms and lightning at isolated places in Chandigarh, Punjab and Haryana for Wednesday and Thursday.

Following the drizzling and overcast sky during the day, the residents got some respite from the sweltering weather conditions, but the relative humidity rose to 89 per cent. The day and night temperatures in the region also remained almost the same as on Monday with minor dip of just 0.9 degree in maximum and 1.4 degrees in minimum readings during the past 24 hours.

Chandigarh recorded a maximum of 35.1 and minimum 26.6 degree Celsius on Tuesday, which was 0.9 and 1.4 degrees below Monday’s mercury and above normal by 0.7 and near normal, respectively.

The weathermen have predicted a generally and partly cloudy sky with thunderstorms and rain in the tricity till July 13.

Bathinda in Punjab and Mewat in Haryana recorded the highest minimum temperature of 28 and 28.5 degree Celsius, respectively, to be the warmest towns in the region on Monday night.

Anandpur Sahib in Punjab and Sirsa in Haryana remained the hottest places in the region on Tuesday with the maximum temperature of 39.2 degree Celsius, which was the highest in the region.

Hoshiarpur in Punjab and Narnaul in Haryana experienced the least warm night in the region on Monday with the lowest minimum temperature of 25.4 and 24.4 degree Celsius, respectively.

“As compared to yesterday, there was a fall of 0.4 and rise of 1.6 degrees in average maximum temperature, with the mercury remaining below normal by 2.1 and 1.7 degrees in Punjab and Haryana, respectively, on Tuesday,” the IMD said.

Record rainfall

Chandigarh had received 213mm rainfall during the past month, which was highest in the past decade and was 37 per cent more than the normal precipitation in June.

Also, entering July with 31mm rainfall on the month’s very first day, the city recorded 221.2mm downpour from Sunday to Tuesday, which had brought much-relief from the hot weather conditions, but had left major parts of the tricity region inundated with roads continuing to cave in, trees and poles getting uprooted at several locations, damaging the public property and major disruption in power and water supply, throwing the normal life out of gear for three days in a row.

Chandigarh