Afternoon, evening showers halt tricity; mercury dips

The moderate to heavy rain on Monday afternoon and evening once again halted the normal life in Chandigarh, Mohali and Panchkula with day temperature registering a considerable dip of over 4 degrees Celsius.

The India Meteorological Department (IMD) has issued a yellow alert for another spell of heavy rain coupled with thunderstorm and lightning at isolated places in Chandigarh, Punjab and Haryana from Wednesday to Friday.

It was around 12.30 pm and 4 pm on Monday when the tricity region witnessed moderate to heavy downpour, leading to waterlogging and traffic chaos.

While Chandigarh experienced 14-mm rainfall, comprising 10.8-mm during the day and 3.2-mm between 5.30 pm on Sunday and 8.30 am on Monday, Mohali and Panchkula got 6.5-mm and 6-mm showers during the past 24 hours.

This inundated the low-lying areas and major roads and junctions, causing bottlenecks in the smooth flow of vehicular traffic.

The waterlogging once again exposed the ill-preparedness and lackadaisical approach on the part of the Municipal Corporation authorities, who failed to ensure the proper cleaning of road gullies for rainwater disposal.

The downpour gave further respite from the hot and humid weather conditions.

Chandigarh recorded a maximum of 30.4 and minimum of 26.5 degrees Celsius.

The weather department has predicted partly and generally cloudy skies with thunderstorms and rain in the tricity for the next five days till August 15.