Cloudburst strikes Himachal Pradesh, rain disrupts Amarnath yatra in Kashmir

A cloudburst on Tuesday destroyed crops in Himachal Pradesh while heavy rainfall temporarily stopped Amarnath yatra in Kashmir even as heavy downpours in some areas of North India threw normal life out of gear.

In the national capital, the temperatures continued to hover close to the normal levels, but it was high humidity which made life uncomfortable for the Delhiites. The day temperature settled at 33.6 degree Celsius, which was normal for this part of the year, while the minimum temperature was recorded at 27.2 degree Celsius.

The weatherman has predicted a generally cloudy sky for Wednesday, with possibility of light rains or thundershowers in some areas. In view of heavy rains, the ongoing pilgrimage to the Amarnath shrine from Pahalgam and Baltal base camps in Kashmir Valley was halted for a brief period, the officials said.

However, the yatra along the twin tracks leading to the cave shrine has been resumed, they said. In Uttar Pradesh, major rivers continued to flow above the danger mark with moderate to rather heavy rainfall and thundershowers lashing several places in the state.

Ganga continued to flow above the danger level at Ballia and Gazipur and was maintaing a rising trend all through its course from Fatehgarh to Ballia, according to Central Water Commission sources.

Yamuna, Sharda and Ghagra rivers are also flowing above the red mark during its courses at several places in the state. Met officials forecast rain and thundershowers would occur at many places over west UP and few areas in the eastern districts in the next 48 hours. Meanwhile, a cloudburst was reported in Sirmaur district of Himachal Pradesh which washed away kharif crops on 40 bighas of land.

However, there was no loss of life in the incident, official sources said. Due to to the heavy torrential rains in the state, the mercury dropped marginally with Una recording the highest at 32.6 deg Celsius. In a much respite to the people of Punjab and Haryana, which had witnessed relatively hot and dry weather last week, light to moderate showers lashed a number of areas in the region.

Chandigarh, the joint capital, received light showers and the maximum temperature in the city stood at 31.5 deg Celsius. Rainfall was reported from a few places in the state, including Patiala, Amritsar and Mohali.