Monsoon hits Punjab, Hry almost fortnight in advance

Arriving almost a fortnight in advance than its usual date, the southwest monsoon today covered entire Punjab, Haryana and Chandigarh, with rains lashing many parts in the region, leading to a dip in mercury.
"The southwest monsoon has further advanced into remaining parts of Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh and entire Haryana, Chandigarh, Delhi and Punjab," the MeT department said here.
The normal date of arrival of the monsoon in Punjab, Haryana and Chandigarh is between June 29-July 5 and last year it had hit the region on July 7.
Heavy rains lashed large parts of Punjab since yesterday until afternoon today.

Heavy downpour continued across Punjab including Patiala (47.4 mm), Ludhiana (32.6 mm), Amritsar (15.7 mm), Balachaur (121.2 mm), Pathankot (6 mm), Nawanshahr (63.2 mm), Mansa (49.2 mm), Bathinda (50 mm), Rajpura (27.2 mm), Mukerian (16.5 mm) and Mohali (55 mm).
Chandigarh was also lashed by heavy showers (58.5 mm). It had rained here heavily yesterday as well. However, by afternoon today, the rains stopped giving way to a bright sun shine.

Today, the maximum temperature in Chandigarh settled at 28 deg C, down ten notches.
In Haryana, Bhiwani (1 mm), Panchkula (10 mm), Ambala (46.7 mm), Kalka (35 mm), Hisar (59.8 mm), Yamunanagar (105 mm), Panipat (6 mm) were among those places which received rains.

A report from Yamunanagar, quoting official sources, said that water level in the Hathnikund barrage increased after the rains and it had crossed 4.51 lakh cusecs by this evening.
Nearly five villages of Yamunanagar district were flooded with heavy rain water while water level had also started rising in Som river and Western Yamuna canal.
The maximum temperatures across Punjab and Haryana settled several notches below normal level today.
Ambala recorded a high of 25.4 deg C, down 13 notches, Hisar's high settled at 31 deg C, down 10 notches, Narnaul recorded a high of 34 deg C, down seven notches, Amritsar recorded a maximum of 31.2 deg C, nine below normal, Ludhiana's high was 31.1 deg C, down nine degrees while Patiala's high settled at 28.4 deg C, down ten notches.

Moderate to rather heavy rain/thundershowers would occur at many places in Punjab and Haryana during the next two days, after which a decrease in rainfall activity has been predicted, according to a MeT forecast.
Besides bringing cheer to the farmers and relief to the people from sizzling heat conditions, the power situation in the two states has also improved in view of the rains that lashed the region during the past few days.