MONSOON WITHDRAWS FROM HIMACHAL, PUNJAB

SHIMLA: The southwest monsoon withdrew from Himachal Pradesh, Punjab, Jam mu and Kashmir and some parts of Haryana and west Raj as than with 15% deficit rainfall in the state, the local MeT officials said on Sunday.

Him ac hal received an average 719.9 mm rainfall against normal rainfall of 843.5 mm from June 1 to September 30, 2017 which is 15% less, director meteorological office Manmohan Singh said.

Bar ring tribal La haul and S pi ti with lowest rainfall recorded 138.4 mm, which was 70% less than normal, while Ch am ba, Kinn au rand Sol an districts received 696.7 mm ,180.4 mm and 839.6 mm rainfall which was 50%, 32% and 16% less, the remaining eight districts had normal rainfall.

The districts which received normal rainfall included Bilaspur, Hamirpur, Kangra, Kullu, Mandi, Una, Sirmour and Shimla.

Last year, the southwest monsoon had withdrawn from Him ach al Pradesh on October 5 and cumulative rainfall was 623.9 mm, which was 26% less than the normal rainfall, Singh said.

During this season, all the months had below normal rainfall over the state, except on June which recorded above normal rainfall.

Monthly rainfall was 124.3 mm (25 per cent excess) in June, 216.7 mm (minus 30%) in July, 273.3 mm (minus 6%) in August and 105.7 mm( minus 26%) in September.

With the withdrawal of monsoon and dry weather conditions, the day temperatures rose marginally and Una recorded a high of 35 degrees while minimum temperatures dropped to 7.8 degrees and 8.6 degree sat Keylong and K al pain the tribal areas.