Heavy rainfall in UP, Uttarakhand

Lucknow/Dehradun, July 18: Heavy rainfall was witnessed across Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand Friday, ending days of hot, humid and muggy weather.

The Met Office said the region will continue to get rainfall over the weekend.

This is the first major rain in Uttar Pradesh whose 41 districts have received 40 percent deficient rainfall this year.

The weatherman said the rain in the next few days is likely to make up for the deficit so far.

The Ghagra river in Barabanki breached the danger level mark. Breaches have been reported in embankments in Chirauli and Ghauspur villages.

Last year in June, 39 mm of rainfall was seen in Lucknow, while July had 45.0 mm of rainfall. However, the rainfall in the corresponding period has been only 5 mm and 34.1 mm respectively.

The neighbouring hill state of Uttarakhand saw rainfall for the third consecutive day Friday. An alert has been sounded in Uttarkashi and Chamoli following incessant rains since Thursday.

More than 600 pilgrims are stranded in Badrinath and Kedarnath after some parts of the highways leading to the shrines were hit by landslides. The Char Dham Yatra remained suspended.

IANS