Rainfall likely to increase over north Indian plains, hills: IMD
New Delhi: In a much needed relief to rain-battered Maharashtra and Goa, the India Meteorological Department (IMD) on Saturday said rainfall activity is expected to reduce over the west coast, even as it issued an orange alert for 24 Madhya Pradesh districts.
Five people were killed and 18 injured in four incidents of lightning strikes in Madhya Pradesh.
The IMD, meanwhile, said Gujarat is very likely to witness an "active wet spell" till July 27, with the likelihood of light to moderate rainfall at several places and isolated heavy to very heavy rainfall.
In Goa, traffic on the South Western Railway (SWR) route continues to remain affected for the second consecutive day on Saturday, a day after two landslides occurred on the Goa-Karnataka border, besides the derailment of a train in the section.
Light to moderate rainfall and thundershowers occurred at a few places in Uttar Pradesh on Saturday, with heavy downpour at isolated places in the eastern part of the state.
The Met said rainfall and thundershowers are very likely at a few places in the state on Sunday with heavy downpour at isolated places in the western part.
There was light to moderate rainfall at many places in Rajasthan too, and widespread downpour is expected in the eastern part of the state till July 27.
The Jaipur weather office said Pirawa in Jhalawar recorded extremely heavy rainfall of 21 cm in a 24-hour period ending Saturday morning. Pipalda (Kota) and Malsisar (Jhunjhunu) received 8 cm downpour each during the same span of time, it said.
In Punjab and Haryana, the maximum temperatures stayed close to normal even as a few places received rainfall.
Ambala in Haryana recorded a maximum temperature of 37.4 degrees Celsius, Hisar 37.3 degrees Celsius and Gurgaon 36.5 degrees Celsius.
Common capital Chandigarh recorded a high of 36.2 degrees Celsius, two notches above normal.
In Punjab, Amritsar, Ludhiana and Patiala recorded their maximums at 35.6, 36.3 and 36.3 degrees Celsius respectively.
Karnal, Rohtak and Amritsar received 7 mm, 0.2 mm and 10 mm rainfall respectively.
In its forecast, the IMD said rainfall activity will increase over the north Indian plains and hills from July 25.
"Fairly widespread to widespread rainfall with isolated heavy to very heavy falls (are) likely over Uttarakhand during July 25-28; Himachal Pradesh, Haryana and West Uttar Pradesh during July 26-28, and Punjab and east Uttar Pradesh on July 27 and 28," it said, adding isolated extremely heavy falls are also likely over Himachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand on July 27 and 28. "Further reduction in rainfall intensity is very likely along the west coast, including Konkan, Goa and adjoining interior Maharashtra, during the next 24 hours," the IMD added.
In Madhya Pradesh, the IMD said heavy to very heavy rainfall and thunderstorms with lightning might occur in isolated places in Jabalpur, Rewa, Satna, Anuppur, Umarai, Dindori, Katni, Narsinghpur, Mandla, Sagar, Chhatarpur, Tikamgarh, Vidisha and Sehore, Rajgarh, Betul, Burhanpur, Khandwa, Khargone, Dhar, Dewas, Agar Malwa, Ashok Nagar and Shivpuri districts.
