Light to medium rain pours misery, dips mercury

Light to medium rain continued to pour misery and dipped the day and night temperatures considerably in Chandigarh, Mohali and Panchkula on Thursday.

While 32.2-mm downpour lashed the city, Mohali recorded 21.5-mm showers during the past 24 hours.

The India Meteorological Department (IMD) has issued a yellow alert for heavy rain coupled with thunderstorm and lightning at isolated places in Chandigarh, Punjab and Haryana during the next two days -- Friday and Saturday -- as well.

The continuous rain threw the normal life out of gear with low-lying areas, major roads and junctions remaining inundated, leading to massive traffic jams and chaos across Chandigarh and Mohali.

The condition of roads further deteriorated with the potholes getting wider and deeper even as the Municipal Corporation authorities remained in deep slumber in both the towns.

With no repair or relaying in sight, most of the roads in Chandigarh and Mohali continued to give bumpy rides to the commuters, subjecting them to mishaps and damage to vehicles.

Meanwhile, the night and daylong showers made the weather pleasant with the day temperature settling at 28.7, 27.8 and 26.8 degree Celsius in Chandigarh, Mohali and Panchkula, respectively.

The night temperature also dipped with Chandigarh, Mohali and Panchkula recording 25.5, 24.8 and 23.8 degree Celsius, respectively.

However, the relative humidity in Chandigarh further shot up to 93%.

The IMD has predicted generally and partly cloudy sky with thunderstorm and rain in the tricity region during the next five days till August 18 with maximum and minimum temperature likely to remain within 31 and 25 degrees Celsius.