Overnight rains bring down mercury in Punjab, Haryana; Gulmarg sees season’s first snowfall

The fresh showers are expected to bring some relief for Punjab, Haryana and its joint capital Chandigarh that had been grappling with poor air quality index (AQI) over the last few days amid rising farm fire cases in the paddy harvest season

While overnight rains in parts of Punjab and Haryana brought the mercury down by a few notches and is expected to bring some relief from the deteriorating air quality, Kashmir’s tourist destination Gulmarg witnessed the season’s first snowfall on Friday. Temperatures also dipped across Himachal as higher reaches of the state received fresh snow.

Commuters brave the rain in Amritsar on Friday. (Sameer Sehgal/HT)

As per the India Meteorological Department, Punjab’s Amritsar received 9.2 mm rain followed by Jalandhar (7.2 mm), Tarn Taran (5 mm) and Moga (2 mm). In neighbouring Haryana, Jhajjar and Narnaul received 6 mm rain each, followed by Faridabad (4 mm), Gurugram and Rohtak (2 mm each), and Hisar (1 mm).

The fresh showers are expected to bring some relief for Punjab, Haryana and its joint capital Chandigarh that had been grappling with poor air quality index (AQI) over the last few days amid rising farm fire cases in the paddy harvest season. The AQI of parts of Punjab and Haryana had slipped into the “poor” and “very poor” category over the last few days. Some districts in Haryana, especially those in the National Capital Region, had reported AQI under the “severe” category.