At 213 mm, Chandigarh gets highest June rain in decade, 37% above normal

Before the miseries caused by previous night’s 119.5mm downpour could be healed, the city was lashed by another spell of 70.7mm rain coupled with thunderstorm and lightning till 8:30 am on Monday. The weathermen confirmed that it was the heaviest in Punjab and Haryana for the second day in a row. With this, Chandigarh received 213mm rainfall during this month, the highest in the past decade and 37% more than the normal precipitation.

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Yellow alert for today

The IMD has issued a yellow alert for heavy rain coupled with thunderstorm and lightning at isolated places in Chandigarh, Punjab and Haryana on Tuesday, Thursday and Friday. Punjab may also receive rain on Wednesday.

The heaviest monsoon rainfall during the past 48 hours brought respite from the sweltering heat but left major parts of the tricity region comprising Chandigarh, Mohali and Panchkula inundated. Roads continued to cave in, trees and poles were uprooted at several locations, damaging the public property, and power and water supplies were disrupted, throwing the normal life out of gear for the second consecutive day.

The ill-preparedness and indifference of the civic authorities were once again exposed with the residents continuing to fend for themselves in the waterlogged roads and streets, and caved-in road portions clogged drains and road gullies. Uprooted trees and poles fell on vehicles besides power and water supply remained suspended for hours.

The residents once again experienced long power outages besides voltage fluctuations and frequent tripping in major parts of the tricity.

Electricity officials attributed the major disruption to breakdown due to rain and thunderstorm.

Sharing the monthly data, the India Meteorological Department (IMD) said Chandigarh received 213mm of rainfall between June 1 and 30, which was 37% more than the normal rainfall of 155.5mm. The previous highest rainfall of 251.5mm in Chandigarh during the month of June was recorded in 2013.

The year-wise data for June showed that the city got 43.7mm rain in 2014, 63.9mm in 2015, 133.6mm in 2016, 103.1mm in 2017, 142.9mm in 2018, 24.8mm in 2019, 131.1mm in 2020, 119.4mm in 2021, 60.9mm in 2022, 142.9mm in 2023 and the decade’s lowest of 11.9mm rainfall last year.

Meanwhile, Chandigarh recorded the maximum temperature of 30.7°C and minimum of 24.1°C on Monday, 0.5 degree more than a day before and below normal by 4.8 and 3 degrees, respectively.

The weathermen have predicted a generally and partly cloudy sky with thunderstorm and rain in the tricity till July 5.

Bathinda in Punjab and Rohtak in Haryana recorded the highest minimum temperature of 27.4°C and 26.8°C, respectively, to be the warmest towns in the region on Sunday night. While Bathinda remained the hottest place in the region on Monday as well with the maximum of 38.6°C, the highest in the region, Sirsa recorded the maximum of 38°C to stay the hottest town in Haryana today again.

Interestingly, Bathinda in Punjab and Sirsa in Haryana also experienced the least warm night in the region on Sunday with the lowest minimum temperature of 22.5°C and 23.3°C, respectively.

“As compared to yesterday, there was a fall of 0.5 and 0.6 degree in average maximum temperature, with the mercury remaining below normal by 3.8 and 4.3 degrees in Punjab and Haryana, respectively, on Monday,” the IMD said.