With south-west monsoon steadily sweeping over most of the country, there has been much respite from the sweltering summer heat and blazing sun. This time too, the rains have caused widespread waterlogging, creating road blocks and chaos all over.
The India Meterological Department (IMD) on Saturday issued a yellow alert in Mumbai. IMD also predicted heavy rainfall in parts of Maharashtra in the next 4-5 days. Several parts of Mumbai witnessed water-logging in the wake of the heavy rains making it extremely difficult for bikers and pedestrians.
IMD had issued heavy-rainfall for several districts of Odisha till Tuesday (June 27). It forecast heavy rainfall (7-20cm) in Cuttack, Jajpur, Dhenkanal, Keonjhar and Mayurbhanj on Saturday.
Heavy rain (7-11 cm) is also very likely to occur at one or two places in Balasore, Bhadrak, Kendrapada, Jagatsinghpur, Khordha, Puri, Nayagarh, Angul, Kandhamal, Boudh, Sonepur, Sambalpur, Deogarh and Sundargarh.
IMD also predicted heavy rainfall likely over Bihar and Arunachal Pradesh on Saturday as well.
Meanwhile in Shimla, debris and stones damaged several vehicles parked on roadsides in various parts of the city. The heavy rains in Shimla in the past 12 hours caused roadblockage.
Accroding to the state emergency operation centre, 20 roads, including the National Highway 5 near Theog in Shimla, were blocked due to heavy rain.
The local Met office issued an 'orange' warning indicating heavy to very heavy rain, thunderstorm, and lightning at isolated places on Sunday and Monday. An yellow alert was issued for Tuesday and Wednesday.
While in Madhya Pradesh, south-west monsoon is predicted over the weekend.
IMD's Bhopal director R. Balasubramanian told PTI that the monsoon is to set in over the capital by Monday or Tuesday.
The monsoon arrived in Kerala on June 8, seven days behind its normal schedule.
According to IMD, the southwest monsoon further advanced into some parts of Karnataka, Telangana and the remaining parts of Andhra Pradesh; some parts of Vidarbha, Chhattisgarh, remaining parts of northwest Bay of Bengal and remaining parts of Odisha and Gangetic West Bengal; and some parts Jharkhand and Bihar and some parts of east Uttar Pradesh on Friday.
"Conditions are favourable for further advance of southwest monsoon over some more parts of Chhattisgarh, remaining parts of Jharkhand and Bihar, some parts of east Madhya Pradesh, some more parts of Uttar Pradesh and some parts of Uttarakhand during next 2 days," the last IMD bulletin read.
Odisha is expected to receive heavy to very heavy rainfall till June 26, while.
In northwest India, Uttarakhand and Himachal Pradesh is likely to receive heavy to very heavy rainfall till June 27, and bouts of heavy rainfall over UP from June 24-26.
(With PTI inputs)