Yellow alert in Tricity: IMD predicts heavy rain, thunderstorms on Sunday

The India Meteorological Department (IMD) has issued a yellow alert for heavy rain coupled with thunderstorms and lightning at isolated places in Chandigarh, Punjab, and Haryana on Sunday. It has predicted another spell of heavy rain in the region on Wednesday and Thursday after forecasting dry weather on Monday and Tuesday.

Meanwhile, day and night temperatures dipped considerably on Saturday after a heavy 90-minute rainfall of 86 mm that brought the city to its knees, prompting the opening of the Sukhna flood gates for the second time in less than three days. Today also, Chandigarh, Mohali, and Panchkula experienced light to moderate downpours in the evening that gave further respite from the hot and humid weather conditions. The rain, which started around 5 pm, lashed scattered parts of the Tricity for almost an hour, leading once again to waterlogging and traffic chaos at various places, causing public inconvenience.

Chandigarh recorded a maximum temperature of 33.1 degrees Celsius and a minimum of 24 degrees Celsius, which were 2.7 and 2.2 degrees less than yesterday’s readings and 0.4 and 2.4 degrees below normal, respectively. With a maximum of 32.7 degrees Celsius and a minimum of 25 degrees Celsius, Panchkula remained the least hot in the Tricity, while Mohali topped the chart with 33.2 and 24.2 degrees Celsius maximum and minimum temperatures, respectively. The weather department has predicted partly to generally cloudy skies with thunderstorms and rain in the Tricity for the next five days till August 13.

“Compared to yesterday, there was a fall of 1.6 and 3.8 degrees Celsius in the average maximum temperature, which was near normal and below normal by 1.6 degrees Celsius in Punjab and Haryana, respectively, on Saturday,” IMD said. It recorded the highest maximum temperature of 36.8 degrees Celsius in the region at Abohar in Punjab, followed by 34.5 degrees Celsius at Narnaul in Haryana. IMD observed light to moderate and heavy rain with thunderstorms, lightning, and gusty winds at isolated places in Punjab and a few places in Haryana. Besides, very heavy rain was reported at Ganguwal in Ropar during the past 24 hours.

TRICITY METER

CITY               MAX         MIN          RAIN

Chandigarh      33.1°C       24°C         86-mm

Mohali             33.2°C       26.4°C      NIL

Panchkula        32.7°C       25°C          0.5-mm