Chandigarh, July 4
The southwest monsoon is likely to hit the city as well as neighbouring Punjab and Haryana in a day or two as premonsoon showers drenched the city today, bringing respite to residents braving the sultry weather for the past couple of days.
Various parts of the city received moderate rain during the four hours ending 4:30 pm, which brought down the temperature to tolerable levels of 33.1 degrees Celsius, the weatherman said.
"The city received premonsoon rain today, and monsoon showers are expected in a day or two," said the duty officer at the India Meteorological Department (IMD).
The rain gauges of the weather office have measured 70 mm of rain till 5:30 pm in the city, which had received over 2.8 mm of rain during the past three days.
The weatherman said the minimum temperature dropped by over three degrees to touch 33.1 degrees Celsius. Yesterday, the minimum was 36.3 degrees. However, the minimum temperature stood at 28.2 compared to 28.3 degrees recorded yesterday.
However, the rain has brought in high humidity with the city experiencing 100 per cent humidity after the showers.
The met department earlier said the monsoon had missed the onset date of June 29. Last year the monsoon had reached the city on June 30.
The met office’s projection of likely monsoon in the region is based on its assertion that the monsoon had covered about 80 per cent of the country. Aided by the low pressure area in the Bay of Bengal, the monsoon has covered entire central India as well as some areas of Rajasthan and western Uttar Pradesh.
Weather scientists at the IMD said that region may get monsoon rains by July 6 or 7 and heavier showers by the next weekend. "Conditions are favourable for the southwest monsoon advancing further over some more areas of the northwest region, Rajasthan, remaining parts of Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand and some parts of eastern Rajasthan and western UP in the next two days," IMD director Surender Paul said.
He added monsoon winds would not take long to reach the region as the cloud formations were visible over Bhopal. However, he mentioned that predicting the precise date for the monsoon’s arrival would only be possible after some more days had passed.
According to Met officials, the southwest monsoon will advance over the city and neighbouring states by July 6-7. The monsoon will hit the city a couple of days later though premonsoon showers are set to continue during this period.
"This rain is very welcome. Today, being a Sunday, I'll just stay back at home and enjoy the rain from my balcony," said Rajat Sarkar, a Sector 28 resident.
The showers provided the citizens a perfect Sunday. "Finally, the premonsoon showers arrived, bringing much needed relief from the heat. Today being a Sunday I plan to go out with my family in the evening and hope the weather will remain pleasant for the remaining part of the day," said Puran Sharma, a municipal corporation employee.
“These are premonsoon showers. The region is expected to receive more light to moderate showers in the next two-three days in the city on Monday,” the official said.
“The sky will be partly cloudy on Monday with possibility of a few spells of heavy rain or thundershowers accompanied with squall in some areas of Punjab and Haryana tomorrow, the Met office warned. The maximum temperature is expected to hover around 33 degrees Celsius, while the minimum will hover around 23 degrees,” it added.