Monsoon advances in most parts of HP, moderate rains in many

The southwest monsoon arrived in most parts of Himachal Pradesh except parts of Solan, Sirmaur and Una district today, a senior MeT official said today.
Widespread rains are expected in the region with heavy rains at some places tomorrow, Director of local MeT office Manmohan Singh said, adding that monsoon advanced into most parts of Uttarakhand and, entire Jammu and Kashmir, remaining parts of Madhya Maharashtra, east Madhya Pradesh and Bihar, and most parts of east Uttar Pradesh.
The monsoon had arrived on June 24 last year and July 1 in 2014, and its arrival is normal this year.
Himachal Pradesh received 67 mm rains from June 1 to June 21 this year which is 29 per cent above the normal rainfall of 52 mm and all districts except tribal districts of Kinnaur and Lahaul. Spiti and Kullu district had excess rains.

Solan district received 223 per cent excess rains while Una, Bilaspur, Sirmaur, Mandi and Hamirpur received 144, 111, 94, 82 and 67 per cent excess rains.
Kangra and Shimla districts received 18 per cent and 16 per cent excess rains while Chamba district received normal rains.

However, Kinnaur and Lahaul and Spiti districts had 96 and 89 per cent deficit rains.
Nahan was wettest in the region with 49 mm rains while Gaggal and Shimla received 43 and 29.5 mm rains, followed by Dharamshala 21 mm, Naina Devi 19 mm, Dharampur 17 mm, Solan and Bhoranj 10 mm , Paonta sahib 7mm Bhawarna 6 mm and Sujanpur Tira 5 mm.

Maximum temperature dropped by 3 to 4 degrees Celsius and stayed 2 to 3 degrees below normal.
Una was hottest in the region with maximum temperature at 34.6 degrees Celsius, a drop of 3.5 degrees Celsius while Bhuntar recorded a high of 32.4 degrees Celsius, followed by Sundernagar 31.9 degrees Celsius, Dharamshala29.6 degrees Celsius, Nahan 29.1 degrees Celsius, Solan 27 degrees Celsius, Kalpa 25 degrees Celsius, Manali 23.4 degrees Celsius and Shimla 23 degrees Celsius.
However, minimum temperatures rose marginally and Kalpa and Keylongrecorded a low 13.6 and 14.9 degrees Celsius, followed by Dharamsala 16 degrees Celsius, Shimla 17.1 degrees Celsius, Nahan 18.5 degrees Celsius, Bhuntar 19.5 degrees Celsius, Sundernagar 23.5 degrees Celsius and Una 27.8 degrees Celsius.

The local MeT office has predicted rains and thundershowers at isolated places in lower, mid and higher hills from June 23 and heavy rains in some parts of the state tomorrow.