New Delhi:
Rain clouds dominated conditions in northern India on Saturday with showers lashing large parts of the region where monsoon arrived over a week earlier than expected in Himachal Pradesh.
Delhi, too, was in for showers in the evening as the city turned windy and overcast following a sunny afternoon.
The maximum temperature was recorded at 37.2 degrees Celsius, two degrees below normal and slightly lower than the 38.6 degrees on Friday.
The minimum was a notch below normal at 26.4 degrees, the same as that Friday, while humidity in air fluctuated between 48 and 79 per cent, the MeT office said.
In Uttar Pradesh, conditions were favourable for further advance of monsoon in the coming three days, MeT officials said. The state saw moderate to heavy rain and thundershowers at a few places along with very heavy rainfall at one or two places in the Moradabad division.
The highest maximum temperature recorded in the state was 40.3 degrees at Agra.
Rajasthan saw the monsoon further advance in Udaipur, with the weatherman saying it was likely to cover several other parts of the state in the coming two days or so.
The highest rainfall of 7-cm in the state was recorded in Sarada town while Churu and Sriganganagar, too, received showers, measuring 4.2mm and 2.9mm, respectively.
Most parts of Himachal Pradesh, meanwhile, received heavy rain as the southwest monsoon was declared to have arrived in the state about 10 days in advance.
"The southwest monsoon has arrived in the state 10 days in advance... In the first spell, it would remain active till June 19," MeT director Manmohan Singh said.
The middle and lower hills of Himachal Pradesh were lashed by heavy rain with Nagrota Surian receiving 120-mm rainfall followed by Guler and Nahan, which received 88-mm each.
Mercury dropped a few notches across the state due to the heavy showers with capital Shimla recording a minimum of 12.3 degrees, three notches below normal.
With monsoon advancing into Himachal Pradesh, neighbouring Punjab was also lashed by heavy pre-monsoon showers.
In fact, MeT officials said that monsoon was knocking on the doors of Punjab and Haryana with moderate to heavy pre-monsoon rain occurring across the two states.
As against the normal date of arrival from June 29 to July 3, monsoon is expected to hit Punjab and Haryana over ten days before time.
In Punjab, Hoshiarpur received a heavy downpour of 115-mm followed by Kapurthala (100-mm) and Gurdaspur (70-mm).
Chandigarh was lashed by heavy showers during the day with maximum temperatures in the Union Territory plummeting 14 notches below normal to settle at 23.7 degrees.
In Haryana, Bhiwani, Panchkula, Ambala and Kalka were some of the places which received showers.