Rainfall accompanied by hail in the higher reaches and drizzling in the State capital have brought relief to the people grappling with the insufferable summer heat for the past many days. The mercury dipped substantially in Dehradun with the maximum settling at 29.4ºC on Monday, six notches below the normal. The people of the city woke up to a cloudy morning and intermittent rains. Things remained so throughout the day, thick layer of clouds shielding the people from the scorching summer sun. They, irrespective of ages, looked elated. “We hope that the sweltering summer has gone for this season. Once the monsoon sets in we would be spared the searing heat we suffered for days on end,” said a senior citizen Jyotish Juyal from Hatibarkala.
“This is the first time in the summer when we went outside taking umbrellas to shield us against the rains. We are welcoming the rains as their continuation would spare us the blistering heat we were subjected to for the past many days,” said an ecstatic youngster Harsh from Dalanwala.
The Met officials said that the rainy spell would continue till June 2. However, the spell would be heavy for two more days till May 30. “After that, the intensity would come down, but the spell would continue till June 2,” said the Met department director Bikram Singh, adding that the continuing rainfall activities would spawn landslides in the vulnerable areas of Uttarkashi, Chamoli, Rudraprayag and Pithoragarh districts. The first three of the four districts housing the four shrines, the Met department has alerted the State Government.
The maximum temperature settled at 29.4ºC (six degree below the normal) while the minimum at 21.4ºC (normal) in Dehradun. It was 17.2ºC (seven degree below the normal) and 9.7ºC (three degree below the normal) in Mukteshwar and 32.8ºC (five degree below the normal) and 21.5ºC (one degree below the normal) in Pantnagar.
In Tehri district, maximum temperature was reported as 19.0 degree Celsius while the minimum was 13.1 degree Celsius on Monday.
By 8.30 am on Monday, 50 mm rainfall was reported from Almora, 30 mm rainfall each from Chaukhutia, Gairsain, Banbasa and Mukteshwar, 20 mm rainfall from Dwarhat, Ranikhet and Gangolihat, 10 mm rainfall each from Tehri, Haldwani, Nainital, Pithoragarh, Barkot and Purola and 0.8 mm rainfall from Pantnagar.
The weather forecast for Uttarakhand on Tuesday is generally cloudy sky with possibility of light to moderate rain / thunder shower at many places.
The weather forecast for Dehradun for the same day is partly to generally cloudy sky and thunder cloud development/light rain at some areas.
The maximum and minimum temperatures are likely to be around 32ºC and 21ºC respectively in Dehradun on Tuesday, the weathermen said.