Pre-monsoon showers lash large parts of Punjab, Haryana

The southwest monsoon was knocking at the doors of Punjab and Haryana as moderate to heavy pre-monsoon rains lashed many parts of the region today, causing a dip in mercury.
With monsoon advancing into Himachal Pradesh, the neighbouring Punjab was also lashed by heavy pre-monsoon showers.
Hoshiarpur received a heavy downpour (115 mm) followed by Kapurthala (100 mm), Gurdaspur (70 mm), Amritsar (27.8 mm), Ludhiana (2 mm), Fatehgarh Sahib (21 mm), Ferozepur (13 mm), Jalandhar (25 mm), Patiala (3 mm), Ropar (30 mm), Balachaur (31.2 m), Tarn Taran (12 mm), Mukerian (33 mm), Mohali (15 mm) and Khanna (20 mm), the local Met office said.

The capital of both the states, Chandigarh was lashed by heavy showers during the day today and the maximum temperature fell by few notches below normal level.
In Haryana, Bhiwani, Panchkula, Ambala and Kalka were among those places which received showers.
According to MeT Department Director, Shimla, Manmohan Singh, the southwest monsoon has advanced into neighbouring states of Uttarakhand, Himachal Pradesh and Jammu and Kashmir, which are the neighbouring states of Haryana and Punjab.

He said that conditions are favourable for the further advancement of the monsoon into some more parts of Punjab and Haryana, including Chandigarh during the next 2-3 days.

As against the normal date of arrival between June 29- July 3, the monsoon is expected to hit Punjab and Haryana over ten days in advance.
The MeT department forecasts moderate to rather heavy rain/thundershowers would occur at many places in Punjab and some places in Haryana during the next two days.
The pre-monsoon showers during the past three days in the region have caused a dip in temperatures and bringing cheer to the farmers. The power situation in the state has also improved.