Dry weather in north; heavy rain warning for east, northeast

New Delhi: Mercury maintained its upward trend in most parts of north India in the absence of rains, even as the weather department warned of heavy to very heavy rainfall in east and northeast regions of the country in the next two days.

The Indian Meteorological Department has warned of heavy to very heavy rainfall at a few places and extremely heavy rainfall at isolated places in Assam, Meghalaya, Sikkim and West Bengal during the next two days. There has also been an alert for Odisha.

According to MeT officials, the monsoon has started receding from north India and is unlikely to revive.

In the national capital, it was a hot and humid day with the maximum temperature settling at 36.2 degrees Celsius, two notches above normal and 0.5 degrees. The condition is likely to worsen in coming days, the MeT officials predicted.

The minimum temperature was recorded at 25.3 degrees Celsius, a notch above the season's average. According to the MeT department, humidity oscillated between 40 per cent and 86 per cent, making life uneasy for Delhiites.

Day temperatures continued to hover above normal level across Punjab and Haryana also, in the absence of rain.

The Union Territory of Chandigarh had a high of 34.5 degrees Celsius, two degrees above normal. Hisar in Haryana recorded the highest maximum in the region at 37.6 degrees, while Ambala and Bhiwani had maximums of 34.2 and 35.6 degrees Celsius, respectively.

In Punjab, mercury in Amritsar, Ludhiana and Patiala touched 34.4, 34.3 and 34.7 degrees Celsius mark respectively.

The warning for eastern and northeastern states came days after Jammu and Kashmir faced heavy rainfall leading to the flooding of the state which has so far claimed 277 lives.

As per the MeT officials, heavy rainfall coupled with gusty surface wind is likely to lash some places of interior and coastal Odisha due to a low pressure which triggered rains in several areas during last couple of days.

Rain and thundershower is likely to occur at most places of Odisha under the impact of the low pressure over northwest and adjoining west-central Bay of Bengal off Odisha coast.