Monsoon set to arrive in Chandigarh tonight, brace for heavy rain

The south-west monsoon is expected to reach Chandigarh by Thursday night with heavy to very heavy rain, the weather department said on Wednesday.

India Meteorological Department (IMD) has put out a warning saying heavy to very heavy rain is likely in the city on Thursday and Friday. According to IMD’s definitions, the rainfall range is expected to be between 64.5mm and 244.4mm.

“Unless there is some unforeseen development, it is highly probable that monsoon will reach Chandigarh in the late hours of Thursday or early Friday morning,” said Surender Paul, director, IMD, Chandigarh.

The meteorological department has been giving a similar prediction throughout June. Officials from the department had earlier said that with the way things were shaping up, monsoon could reach Chandigarh two to three days earlier.

According to officials at IMD, the monsoon winds will grip the entire state of Punjab and Haryana by Friday night. “Last year, the monsoon winds were very slow and took more than a week to spread throughout both the states. But this year, this is expected to happen within two to three days,” they said.

The rainy season this year is expected to yield the normal amount of rain at 844.2mm, with no deficit, IMD officials said. If that’s true, Chandigarh will see its highest amount of rain in monsoon in the past five years.

With monsoon’s arrival, the Met has predicted a major dip in the maximum temperatures that could even fall to 20s.

Even on Wednesday, the maximum temperature at 31.9 degrees was 6.3 degrees lower than Tuesday’s 38.2 degrees. However, the humidity was as high as 80%, leaving residents sweating.

On the contrary, minimum temperature increased by one notch on Wednesday at 26.3 degrees as compared to Tuesday’s 25.3 degrees.