Relief after light rains in north, sun scorches Odisha

Light rains today brought some respite from the searing heat in northern states even as a person was killed after being struck by lightining in Madhya Pradesh and two died in Odisha due to heatwave.
Delhi, Rajasthan and the plains of Uttar Pradesh, Punjab and Haryana heaved a sigh of relief as light showers brought mercury down by several notches in parts of these states.
Temperatures in the national capital, which recorded light rains overnight, dropped to 35.4 degrees Celsius, three notches below the season's average. The minimum temperature in the city was 22 degrees.
However, Odisha, which continued to reel under the blistering sun, reported two more heatwave-related deaths, one each in Angul and Jajpur districts, taking the toll to 16. Bhubaneswar and Sonepur were the hottest in the state at 43.5 degrees.

"The number of unconfirmed sunstroke deaths has increased to 156 from 152," the office of the state's Special Relief Commissioner said.
In Madhya Pradesh's Ujjain district, a woman pilgrim died after being struck by lightning as a thunderstorm hit the site of ongoing Simhatha Kumbh Mela.

Minister In-charge for Ujjain, Bhupendra Singh, said 15-20 pilgrims suffered injuries in the squall.
For Telangana, the MeT office predicted light to moderate rains or thundershowers at some places during the next five days. There was an "appreciable" fall in maximum temperatures at one or two places in the state. The highest maximum temperature of 44 degree Celsius was recorded at Hanamakonda.

Temperatures fell below the 40 degree-mark in Punjab and Haryana, with rains lashing some places in both states.
Chandigarh had light rains and recorded a high of 36.4 deg C. Ambala and Hisar in Haryana registered maximums of 33.8 deg C and 36.2 deg C. In Punjab, Amritsar recorded a high of 36.3 deg C while Patiala had a high of 34 deg C.
There was slight respite from the blistering heat in Rajasthan as the day temperatures fell by 2 to 4 degrees Celsius in some parts which experienced light rainfall. Kota was the hottest place in the state with a maximum temperature of 40.2 degree Celsius.

The flood situation showed signs of easing in Assam with
water levels of the river Brahmaputra and its tributaries falling gradually even as 1.27 lakh people in ten districts remained affected by the calamity.
The Brahmaputra is flowing above the danger mark in Dhubri district. The number of relief camps has also come down to 44 with 14,398 people taking shelter there.
In West Bengal, cloudy sky accompanied by a few spells of rain helped keep day temperatures low with Burdwan recording the highest rainfall of 27.8 mm since yesterday morning.
The flood situation improved as districts of Darjeeling, Coochbehar and Jalpaiguri, which have been receiving heavy rains for several days in many places in the Terai and plains of North Bengal, went dry for the second consecutive day.

Parts of Uttar Pradesh received light to moderate rainfall as southwest monsoon remained weak over the state. Lalitpur and Mauranipur received the maximum of 2 cm rainfall each followed by Mirzapur and Kirawali which received 1 cm rainfall each.
In Rajasthan, Mandalgarh in Bhilwara district received 11 cm of rainfall while Tonk, Kota and Bijoliya in Bhilwara witnessed 7 cm each in 24 hours since yesterday morning.
From this morning, Barmer has recieved 27 mm rains, Jaiselmer 2 mm, Ajmer 0.2 mm and heavy rainfall is been forecast for tomorrow in isolated areas.
Rains today lashed several areas in Punjab and Haryana even as maximum temperatures hovered a few notches above normal in most parts of the two states, with Chandigarh receiving 3.3 mm rainfall.