33 mm rainfall brings respite from heat, but pours misery over Chandigarh

Chandigarh received 33mm rainfall on Sunday, which brought much-needed respite from the hot and humid weather conditions but also poured misery as several parts of the city virtually turned into pools of water, causing public inconvenience and traffic chaos.

The India Meteorological Department (IMD) today re-issued a yellow alert for another spell of heavy rain coupled with thunderstorms and lightning at isolated places in Chandigarh and Haryana on Monday and Tuesday.

On Sunday, the city received moderate downpour between 8.30 am and 5.30 pm, which brought the maximum day temperature down by 3.9 degrees as compared to yesterday.

Today’s 33-mm rainfall was second highest in the region after 49-mm downpour recorded in Ferozepur, Punjab.

The rainwater inundated the low-lying areas and major roads, especially the busy junctions and rotaries, leading to massive traffic snarls and bottlenecks.

The residents were once again caught in long traffic jams, especially those heading to Sukhna Lake, Rock Garden, Rose Garden, Leisure Valley, Sector 17, Elante Mall and other tourist spots, which witnessed heavy footfall after the weather turned pleasant on the weekend. The Tribune Chowk also witnessed serpentine queues of vehicles moving bumper-to-bumper in the waterlogged roads.

However, Mohali and Panchkula witnessed light rainfall, ranging up to 1mm.

The day temperature in the city on Sunday remained 33°C, which was 3.9 degrees less than yesterday and 0.8 degree below normal. However, the night temperature shot up to 28.5°C, which was 0.7 degree up from previous night and 1.4 degrees above normal.

Mohali recorded 32.6°C maximum and 29°C minimum temperature, which was 3.3 degrees below and 1.5 degrees up from yesterday’s reading, respectively.

With 32.5°C maximum and 27.4°C minimum, Panchkula witnessed the least hot day and night in Tricity.

“As compared to yesterday, there was no change and fall of 0.4 degree in average maximum temperature, which was near normal in Punjab and Haryana, respectively, on Sunday,” the IMD said, while recording the region’s highest maximum temperature at 38°C in Sirsa, Haryana, followed by 37.4°C in Bathinda, Punjab.

The weathermen observed light to moderate rain at isolated places in Punjab and Haryana.