The monsoon kept its date with Himachal Pradesh covering the entire state in the early hours of Tuesday. Several parts of the state experienced heavy rains.
Widespread rain lashed the state including capital Shimla on late Monday bringing down the mercury sharply .
"Southwest monsoon has advanced into entire Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Jammu and Kashmir, and parts of Uttar Pradesh, Haryana and Punjab... And precipitation occurred at many places in Himachal Pradesh during the past 24 hours," Shimla MeT office director Manmohan Singh said this afternoon.
Bangana in Una district received 88-mm of rains while its adjoining area of Naudan in Hamirpur district recorded 78-mm rainfall, followed by Rajgarh 74-mm and Dehra Gopipur 62-mm.
Shimla recorded 55-mm rainfall since last night, while Dharampur in Solan and Gaggal in Kangra received 51-mm and 47-mm rainfall respectively, marking the onset of Monsoon. Some other places also experienced moderate to heavy rains till this morning including Baldwara 42-mm, Khadrala 39-mm, Fagu, Berthin and Karsog 34-mm each, Arki 32-mm, Ghamroor 31-mm, Renuka 30-mm, Banjar 27-mm and Bilaspur 26-mm.
Manali recorded a low of 12.2 degrees, followed by Keylong 13.1 degrees, Shimla and Dalhousie 14.6 degrees, Nahan 16.2 degrees, Solan 18.2 degrees, Palampur 19.0 degrees, Bhuntar 19.3 degrees, Una 20.0 degrees, Sundernagar and Dharamsala 20.4 degrees Celsius.
Moderate to heavy rainfall has been forecast in the next 48 hours in Himachal. Heavy rain warning has been issued at isolated places .
The sudden arrival of the monsoon has come as a pleasant surprise to the hill folk as the weather office was expecting a late arrival this time . Usually with the arrival of the monsoon a dip in tourist arrivals takes place in the hill stations of Himachal after the peak summer rush in May and June.
