33-mm downpour beats heat, but leaves roads waterlogged

The city received 33-mm rainfall on Sunday, which not only brought much-needed respite from the hot and humid weather conditions but also left several areas inundated, causing public inconvenience and traffic chaos.

The India Meteorological Department (IMD) today re-issued yellow alert for another spell of heavy rain coupled with thunderstorms and lightning at isolated places in Chandigarh and Haryana on Monday and Tuesday.

On Sunday, the city got moderate downpour between 8:30 am and 5:30 pm, which brought the maximum day temperature down by 3.9 degrees as compared to yesterday.

Today’s 33-mm rainfall was the second highest in the region after 49-mm downpour recorded at Ferozepur in Punjab.

The rainwater inundated the low-lying areas and major roads, especially the busy junctions and rotaries, leading to massive traffic snarls and bottlenecks.

The residents were once again held up in long traffic jams on main roads, especially those leading to Sukhna Lake, Rock Garden, Rose Garden, Leisure Valley, Sector 17, Elante Mall and other tourist spots, which witnessed heavy footfall after the weather turned pleasant on the weekend. The Tribune Chowk, which is one of the busiest junctions in the city, also witnessed serpentine queues of vehicles moving bumper-to-bumper on the waterlogged roads.

However, Mohali and Panchkula witnessed light rainfall, ranging up to 1-mm.

The day temperature in the city on Sunday remained 33° Celsius, which was 3.9 degrees less than yesterday’s figure and 0.8 degree below normal. However, the night temperature shot up to 28.5° Celsius, which was 0.7 degree up from previous night’s reading and 1.4 degrees above normal.

Mohali recorded 32.6° Celsius maximum and 29° Celsius minimum temperature, which was 3.3 degrees below and 1.5 degrees up from yesterday’s reading, respectively.

With 32.5° Celsius maximum and 27.4° Celsius minimum, Panchkula witnessed the least hot day and night in the tricity region.

Chandigarh