Southwest monsoon further advances into northern India, rains bring relief

The southwest monsoon further advanced into the northern and the central parts of the country on Friday as light to moderate rainfall occurred in several states and the national capital, bringing relief from the heatwave.

Monsoon made its onset over Delhi, after a delay of six days, with the city recording 25 mm of rainfall till Friday evening.

Kuldeep Srivastava, senior scientist at the India Meteorological Department (IMD), said the department declared the onset of monsoon over Delhi at 8.30 am.

The wind system has covered western Uttar Pradesh, Himachal Pradesh, Jammu and Kashmir, Uttarakhand, east Haryana and the Delhi-NCR region, he said.

Officials said the Safdarjung Observatory, which provides official figures for the city, gauged 25 mm of rainfall till 5.30 pm. As a result of the rains, the humidity levels shot up to 100 per cent.

The IMD said there were rains or thundershowers at most places over Konkan and Goa, Jammu & Kashmir, Uttarakhand, sub-Himalayan West Bengal and Sikkim, Odisha, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Vidarbha, coastal and north interior Karnataka, Kerala, Assam, Meghalaya, Nagaland, Manipur, Mizoram and Tripura.

Parts of Rajasthan received heavy rainfall, with Bhungra recording the maximum at 13 cm, a Meteorological (MeT) official said.

Nayanagar of Ajmer registered the second highest rainfall at 12 cm, followed by Khandar of Swai Madhopur, Mangliawas of Ajmer and Bayana of Bharatpur, recording 11 cm each.

Several places in the state received rainfall ranging from 3 cm to 10 cm during the period, the official said, adding some parts of the state witnessed hot and humid conditions.

With 43.3 degrees Celsius, Bikaner was the hottest place in the state, followed by 42.2 degrees Celsius in Sri Ganganagar, 41.8 in Churu, 41.5 in Jaisalmer, 40.1 in Barmer and 31.1 in Jaipur.

Many places in Haryana and Punjab were lashed by pre-monsoon showers, with Chandigarh receiving 0.6 mm of rains, the weather department said.

The maximum temperatures in the two states and their joint capital Chandigarh fell by around five notches.

Relative humidity in most parts of Punjab and Haryana oscillated between 60 to 98 per cent.

The weatherman has predicted light to moderate rainfall in most parts of Punjab and Haryana on Saturday.

Light to moderate rain and thundershowers occurred at a few places and heavy rain at isolated places in Uttar Pradesh on Friday as the southwest monsoon remained normal over the western part of the state.

Chief amount of rainfall was recorded in Agra (11 cm), Kirawali (9 cm), Nakur (6 cm), Palliakalan (5 cm), Saharanpur, Khairagarh ,Bijnore, Puranpur (4 cm each), Gunnaur, Dhampur (3 cm each) and Kalpi, Rath, Mahroni, Nagina, Birdghat (2 cm each), the meteorological department said.

Day temperatures appreciably rose in Varanasi and Allahabad divisions but there was no major change in the remaining divisions of the state, it said.

The highest maximum temperature in the state at 41.1 degrees Celsius was recorded at Fatehgarh.

The MeT office has forecast rain and thundershowers at a few places in the state and heavy rain at isolated places in eastern Uttar Pradesh.

It has also forecast heavy to very heavy rain at isolated places over western part of the state.

Himachal Pradesh received widespread rain on Friday as monsoon arrived in the entire state, the meteorological department said.

Monsoon had arrived on July 2 in some parts of the state and on Friday it advanced to the remaining parts, Shimla MeT centre director Manmohan Singh said.

Dharamshala received the highest 58 mm rainfall in the last 24 hours, followed by Kasauli 42 mm , Naina Devi 34 mm , Aghar 28 mm, Paonta Sahib and Bharari 27 mm each, Berthin mm 25, Bhoranj mm 24, Pachhad-23 mm, Palampur 21 mm, Solan 19 mm, Rampur 17 mm, Sarahan 15 mm, Khadrala 14 mm, Mehre and Dalhousie 12 mm each and Kufri and Chhatrari 5 mm each.

The highest temperature was recorded in Una at 35.4 degrees Celsius whereas the lowest temperature was in Keylong at 10.2 degrees Celsius, Singh said.

The MeT office has issued yellow warning of heavy rains in plains, low and middle hills of the state from July 6 to 8.

The weatherman has predicted rainfall over Uttarakhand, Rajasthan, Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Himachal Pradesh, Punjab, Haryana, Chandigarh, Delhi, Uttar Pradesh over the next 24 hours.

Thunderstorm accompanied with gusty winds and lightning is very likely at isolated places over Rajasthan and Punjab, the MeT office said.