Chandigarh: The southwest monsoon has officially active status across Punjab and the Union Territory of Chandigarh, prompting the India Meteorological Department to issue a comprehensive rain and thunderstorm advisory for several districts over the coming days. While widespread, continuous downpours have yet to envelop the entire region, weather officials expect monsoon activity to systematically intensify and peak through July 8. The changing weather system brings highly anticipated relief to the agrarian region after a prolonged spell of intense summer heat.
Despite the officially active monsoon classification, several parts of Punjab continued to grapple with hot and humid conditions on Sunday due to patchy and localized initial showers. However, the state’s maximum temperature registered a marginal decline of 0.3 degrees Celsius, successfully pulling the mercury down close to the normal seasonal average for early July. Ludhiana stood out by receiving a heavy spell of rainfall that offered residents immediate respite from the sweltering heat, while multiple other districts spent the day under dense, cloudy skies waiting for the skies to open up.
In its latest meteorological bulletin, the Meteorological Centre in Chandigarh issued an explicit rain and thunderstorm alert covering twelve major districts. The administrative zones under the weather watch include Pathankot, Gurdaspur, Amritsar, Hoshiarpur, Shaheed Bhagat Singh Nagar, Kapurthala, Jalandhar, Ludhiana, Fatehgarh Sahib, Rupnagar, Patiala, and SAS Nagar. Forecasters have predicted intermittent rainfall accompanied by strong, gusty winds and frequent lightning across these areas for the next three days, affirming that atmospheric conditions remain highly favorable for sustained, widespread monsoon advancement.
