Vijay Mohan
Chandigarh, July 2
Widespread rain in the region over the past two days has helped overcome the severe monsoon deficit in Punjab and Haryana, but rains in Himachal Pradesh continue to remain deficient.
The amount of rain received by Punjab from June 1 to July 2 is at par with the long period average for this period, while Haryana has recorded a surplus of 18 per cent, according to data compiled by the India Meteorological Department (IMD). Rain is deficient by 27 percent in Himachal Pradesh.
During the aforementioned period, Punjab received 61.9 mm rain against the normal of 62.1 mm, while Haryana received 71.5 mm against the normal of 60.7 mm. Himachal Pradesh received 80.7 mm against the normal of 109.9 mm.
In the month of June, rains had been deficient by 34 per cent in the hill state of Himachal Pradesh, and by 34 per cent and 28 per cent in the agrarian states of Haryana and Punjab, respectively.
Incidentally, in the first two days of July when monsoon had covered most parts of northwest India, the rainfall in the region was massively surplus, with the deviation from normal being as high as 493 per cent in Haryana and 194 percent in Punjab. In Himachal, rains were surplus by 54 percent.
Though rainfall recorded in the states as a whole during July so far was surplus, it was deficient in a few places, which include the districts of Gurdaspur, Tarn Taran, Faridkot and Muktsar in Punjab.
In Himachal, the districts of Lahaul Spiti, Hamirpur and Una had deficient rain, with the tribal belt of Lahual Spiti in the upper reaches of the state recording a deficiency of 87 per cent, according to the IMD.
The weatherman has predicted the probability of normal to above normal over parts of North India during July along with normal to above normal maximum temperatures except some parts of the Himalayan foothills where below normal maximum temperatures are likely to prevail.
Widespread rain overcomes monsoon deficiency in Punjab, Haryana
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