Rain kills 4 in Raj, mercury plummets in northwest

New Delhi, May 13 (UNI) Two people, including a minor, were killed and nine others were injured in a wall collapse following a high velocity duststorm and downpour in Shastri Nagar area of Rajasthan today even as Mercury plummeted in the northwest following rain at isolated places in Himachal Pradesh, providing respite to people from scorching heat.

With today's incident, number of people killed and injured in the desert state has reached 4 and 18 respectively.

Chandigarh and its adjoining areas in Punjab and Haryana also recorded a steep fall in the temperature of three to six degrees.

The city, which reported trace rainfall, recorded the maximum temperature at 32.4 degrees celsius, six degrees below normal.

In Punjab, Ludhiana and Patiala recorded a drastic fall in the temperatures by five degrees below normal, respectively recording 34.5 degrees celsius and 34.9 degrees celsius. Temperature remained near static at Amritsar at 39.5 degrees against 39.6 degrees recorded yesterday.

In Haryana, the temperature plummeted at Hissar, Karnal and Bhivani, giving relief to people from siziling heat in the state.

In Himachal Pradesh, night temperatures rose marginally due to presence of Western Disturbance (WD) in Jammu and Kashmir and other adjoining areas.

Shimla town and several other towns and tourist resorts also recorded light intermittent showers during the day.

The maximum dropped to 29.2 degrees at Dharamsala and 21.1 degrees at Shimla. The capital town was pounded by moderate rain last night.

The Weather Office predicted light to moderate rain or thundershowers at many places in Himachal Pradesh and few places in Punjab and Haryana during the next 24 hours.

In Uttar Pradesh, repeated showers at few places in Lucknow and Gorakhpur division today brought some respite from the immense heat.

According to the Meteorological department, while most other parts of the state remained dry, the maximum temperature in Gorakhpur, Bareilly, Allahabad, Meerut and Kanpur divisions remained several notches below normal during the last 24 hrs.

Hamirpur was the hottest at 42.2 degrees Celsius.

In the east, rain or thundershowers are likely to occur at a few places in Nagaland, Manipur, Mizoram, Tripura and isolated places in Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Meghalaya, West Bengal, Sikkim, Orissa, Jharkhand and Bihar.

Temperatures were appreciably to markedly below normal in some parts Madhya Pradesh, Gujarat and Kutch.

In Maharshtra hot day conditions in the north and Vidarbha region continued unabated with Nagpur recording the maximum temperature of 43.8 degrees today.

Towards the South, severe heat wave conditions prevailed in Guntur and Prakasam districts of Coastal Andhra Pradesh.

The highest maximum temperature of 45 deg Celsius was recorded at Rentachintala.

However, rain occurred at a few places over Coastal Andhra Pradesh while it was isolated over Rayalaseema.

Another spell of heavy rain inundated the remote Andaman and Nicobar Islands.

Nearly 3,000 tourists are stranded at the Chennai Airport as the flight services to the island from Kolkata and Chennai got disrupted for the second day today following heavy rains since yesterday and sources have said the island's airport would be closed for sometime tomorrow also.

Monsoon has reached south Andaman Sea, Nicobar Islands and parts of southwest Bay of Bengal about five days ahead of schedule, according to the India Meteorological Department.

Rain or thunderstorms are likely in coastal Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu and south interior Karnataka.

UNI Team AKJ BD2003