Punjab floods: Rainfall likely to subside in region from Sept 4, says MeT

“The intensity of rainfall will reduce considerably from Thursday, and this trend is likely to continue for the next three to four days,” said Surender Paul, director, IMD Chandigarh

The India Meteorological Department (IMD) on Wednesday said that rainfall activity in the region is expected to decline significantly starting Thursday.

Over the past 24 hours, Punjab’s 19 districts have recorded 60% or more rainfall than the normal. (HT)

“The intensity of rainfall will reduce considerably from Thursday, and this trend is likely to continue for the next three to four days,” said Surinder Paul, director, IMD-Chandigarh.

The state has been experiencing persistent rainfall over the past several days, inundating farmland and causing waterlogging in several areas.

Paul added that there was no warning for heavy rainfall in the region until September 9.

“Along with Punjab, the rainfall activity will also decrease in Chandigarh, Haryana and Himachal too,” he added.

Over the past 24 hours, Punjab’s 19 districts have recorded 60% or more rainfall than the normal. Sangrur, Gurdaspur, Ludhiana, Pathankot, Jalandhar, and Barnala have been battered by excess rainfall. The IMD data has revealed that Punjab received 30 mm of rainfall against the normal of 4.6mm rainfall in the past few weeks.

To date, during the monsoon season, Punjab has received 575 mm of rainfall between June 1 and September 3. This is 54% above the Long Period Average (LPA). Last year, Punjab received 22% less rainfall during the same period.

This marks 74% excess rain compared to the LPA of 146.2mm in the monsoon season since 2000, signalling a big departure from the past, the data further revealed. IMD currently uses the 1971-2020 average as the LPA for such comparisons.