Yellow alert in Chandigarh: Another spell of heavy showers on Thursday

The India Meteorological Department (IMD) has issued a yellow alert for heavy rainfall in Chandigarh, Punjab and Haryana on Thursday. The weathermen have also predicted thunderstorms and lightning at isolated places tomorrow.

Chandigarh received 19 mm rainfall during the past 24 hours, which brought down the mercury by over 3 degrees. The downpour brought respite from the hot and humid weather conditions, but again poured misery in the city.

While Chandigarh got 19 mm rainfall, Mohali and Panchkula received 3.5 mm and 4 mm showers during the day. However, the relative humidity shot up to 92 per cent today. The moderate rainfall once again led to waterlogging in the low-lying areas, roads, streets and roundabouts, besides causing further cave-ins at various road stretches, turning them into virtual death traps.

The inclement weather also disrupted the power and water supply at various places.

Chandigarh recorded a maximum of 31.8 and minimum of 24.4 degree Celsius on Wednesday, which was 3.1 and 2.7 degrees below Tuesday’s mercury. The weathermen have predicted a generally cloudy sky with thunderstorms and rain in the Tricity on Thursday and Friday, partly cloudy sky on Saturday and Sunday, and another spell of light rain on Monday.

Ludhiana in Punjab and Faridabad in Haryana recorded the highest minimum temperature of 27.4 and 27.8 degree Celsius, respectively, to be the warmest towns in the region on Tuesday night. Palwal in Haryana remained the hottest place in the region on Thursday with the maximum temperature of 35.4 degree Celsius, which was the highest in the region, while Pathankot measured the maximum of 34.5 degree Celsius to stay the hottest town in Punjab today. Amritsar in Punjab and Mahendragarh in Haryana experienced the least warm night in the region on Tuesday with the lowest minimum temperature of 24.1 and 23.5 degree Celsius, respectively.

“As compared to yesterday, there was a fall of 1.4 and rise of 0.2 degrees in average maximum temperature, with the mercury remaining below normal by 2.7 and 2.8 degrees in Punjab and Haryana, respectively, on Thursday,” 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 normal life out of gear for three days in a row.

Chandigarh