Rains scanty, mercury maintains upward trend in north India

The mercury continued its upward trend across north India today as the monsoon remained weak barring a few places in Rajasthan and eastern Uttar Pradesh that received light to moderate rains.
As rains continued to elude Delhiites, day temperature in the national capital rose to a record 42 degrees Celsius, seven notches above normal for this time of the year.
Today's maximum temperature was highest for the month of July since 2012 and broke past two days' record.
The maximum was recorded at 41.3 degrees yesterday, while on Wednesday it had settled at 40.5 degrees.
"All these temperatures are highest for the month of July in 2013-14. Last year, the mercury soared to 39.2 degrees, while in 2012 it had touched 43.5. Usually, July witnesses monsoon and the current upward trend in mercury is mainly due to elusive rains," a MeT department official said here.

At Palam, day temperature settled at 44 degrees Celsius, while in Ridge area and Ayanagar they were 41.7 and 43.4 degrees, respectively.

The minimum in the city settled at 30.1 degrees Celsius, three points above normal. Humidity in the air oscillated between 26 and 74 per cent. According to the MeT official, monsoon is likely to revive in the city from Monday.
In Punjab and Haryana too, there was no sign of rains with heatwave seeping across the two states. The maximum temperatures in both the states hovered several notches above normal level.
Hisar in Haryana was the hottest with a maximum of 43.5 degrees Celsius, five points above normal, followed by Bhiwani 42.4, Narnaul 42, Ambala 39.6 and Karnal 39 degrees.

In Punjab, the mercury touched 42.2 degrees Celsius in Amritsar, which was seven notches above normal, and 40 degrees in both Ludhiana and Patiala. The Union Territory of Chandigarh recorded a maximum of 39 degrees Celsius.
Heatwave conditions also prevailed in western parts of Uttar Pradesh, while moderate to heavy rains occurred at isolated places in the state's eastern region.
According to the MeT office in Lucknow, Chandauli and Gazipur districts received 4-cm of rains each since last evening, followed by Zamania, Lalganj and Mohamdabad (Gohna) 3-cm each, and Deoria 2-cm.