Parts of West Bengal flooded after rainfall, yellow alert in Himachal
NEW DELHI: Heavy rainfall lashed north Bengal on Saturday, leading to flooding in low-lying areas, and the weather department issued a yellow warning for Himachal Pradesh for July 12 as the monsoon trough ran close to the foothills of the Himalayas passing eastward from Arunachal Pradesh to Punjab.
The India Meteorology Department said heavy-to-very heavy rainfall is expected in sub-himalayan West Bengal and Sikkim and East Uttar Pradesh and Bihar on Sunday, and it could be accompanied by thunderstorm in the Gangetic West Bengal. Private forecaster Skymet added that Assam, Meghalaya, Himachal Pradesh and coastal Karnataka could receive moderate rainfall in the next 24 hours.
Heavy rainfall across north and east Indian has led to several accidents and landslides. In Uttar Pradesh, two women were killed and four others suffered injuries in separate incidents of wall collapse in Sultanpur district on Saturday.
Rainfall for the five days has triggered landslides and floods in Arunachal Pradesh, damaging roads and houses and inundating low-lying areas. The death toll due to monsoon-related incidents in the state has climbed to 15.
Meanwhile, cloudy skies in Delhi kept the mercury in check on Saturday but a high humidity level (98pc) after overnight rainfall caused inconvenience to the residents. The weatherman predicted a generally cloudy sky, light rain and strong surface winds on Sunday.
Since June 1, when the monsoon season started in the country, Delhi has gauged 79.4 mm rainfall against the normal of 112.1 mm. The monsoon reached Delhi on June 25.
So far in July, 43.5 mm rainfall has been recorded in Delhi, which is 23 per cent less than the normal of 56.5 mm.
In West Bengal, low-lying areas of Jalpaiguri and other places on the foothills of the Himalayas were inundated after heavy rainfall, and authorities began moving people to higher grounds. Jalpaiguri recorded 93 mm rainfall in 24 hours till 8.30 am on Saturday, while Siliguri recorded 61.4 mm.
More showers are expected in the region over the next two days.
Kolkata too was lashed by rainfall, leading to traffic snarls in parts of the city. A yellow weather warning has been issued for heavy rainfall in middle hills of Himachal Pradesh on Sunday, Shimla Meteorological Centre Director Manmohan Singh said. The weather office issues colourcoded warnings to alert people ahead of severe or hazardous weather that has the potential to cause “damage, widespread disruption or danger to life”. Yellow is the least dangerous of all weather warnings.
Una was the hottest place in the state with a maximum temperature of 36.4 degrees Celsius.