The Tribune, Chandigarh, India

SPECIAL COVERAGE

CHANDIGARH

DELHI

THE TRIBUNE SPECIALS

50 YEARS OF INDEPENDENCE

TERCENTENARY CELEBRATIONS

Extremes
Town	Max (in Celsius)	Min (in Celsius)

Ambala	43.4	25.3
Amritsar	43.0	25.8
Bhunter	31.9	13.6
Hisar	44.7	30.8
Jammu	—	31.2
Karnal	41.7	24.6
Ludhiana	43.1	26.3
Patiala	42.4	27.0
Shimla	27.0	19.9
Srinagar	—	14.0
Sundernagar	38.3	19.2

NATION

Read under headings Max (maximum temperature), Min (minimum temperature), R (rainfall in past 24 hours) and TR (total rainfall):

Station	Max	Min
Ahmedabad	40	29
Allahabad	46	31
Aurangabad	38	24
Bangalore	32	21
Baroda	39	30
Bhavnagar	38	28
Bhopal	41	31
Bhubaneshwar	46	29
Bhuj	39	27
Chennai	41	29
Dehra Dun	39	24
Gangtok	24	18
Guwahati	36	25
Gaya	45	30
Hyderabad	36	26
Indore	—	27
Jaipur	42	29
Jamshedpur	—	29
Kolkata	39	31
Kodaikanal	—	13
Kolhapur	32	22
Lucknow	45	28
Mangalore	31	24
Mumbai	35	27
Minicoy	29	24
Nagpur	42	29
New Delhi	43	29
Panjim	32	25
Patna	43	29
Pune	35	23
Rajkot	40	27
Ranchi	41	27
Ratnagiri	32	26
Shillong	25	19
Sholapur	38	24
Surat	36	29
Tiruchirapalli	38	28
Thiruvananthapuram	30	23
Udaipur	40	29
Uthagadamandalam	21	11
Vishakhapatnam	38	31

Sriganganagar sizzles at 46.3ºC
Tribune News Service

New Delhi, June 17
Rainfall: Rain/thundershowers have occurred at isolated places in Jammu and Kashmir. Weather was mainly dry in the rest of the region.

Temperature: Past 24 hours change: The maximum temperatures rose in Haryana and west Rajasthan and changed little elsewhere. Departure: This was markedly above normal in east Uttar Pradesh, appreciably above normal in Rajasthan, west Uttar Pradesh and Uttaranchal, above normal in Haryana, Himachal Pradesh and Punjab and normal in Jammu and Kashmir. The highest maximum temperature in the region was 46.3ºC recorded at Sriganganagar (Rajasthan).

Forecast valid until the morning of June 19: Rain/thundershowers are likely at isolatd places in Himachal Pradesh, Jammu and Kashmir, Punjab and Uttaranchal. Dust storm/ thunderstorm is likely at isolated places in Haryana, Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh.

Forecast for Delhi and neighbourhood valid until the morning of June 19: Partly cloudy sky with dust haze. Dust storm/thunderstorm, accompanied with squall, is likely in some areas. The maximum temperature will be around 43ºC.

Farmers’ weather bulletin for Delhi forecast valid until the morning of June 19: Dust storm/thunderstorm is likely at a few places. Squall with wind speed exceeding 65 kmph is likely at isolated places.

Outlook for the subsequent two days: No large change.

Monsoon may hit region by June 29
Sarbjit Dhaliwal
Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, June 17
Advance of the monsoon in the North-East and Western India this morning has brought cheer to officials of the Meteorological Department here. “ It has given us hope that the monsoon will hit the northern region including Punjab, Haryana, Chandigarh, Himachal Pradesh and J and K, in time,” said a senior officer of the department.

The transplantation of paddy is in full swing in this part of the country. Farmers desperately need water for irrigation. They have been, by and large, depending on limited power supply to operate their tubewells. As most of the power supply has been diverted to the farm. Sector, domestic consumers have been passing through a miserable time in villages because of prolonged power cuts.

The temperature is on the rise in the region. The temperature at noon today in City Beautiful crossed 43 degrees Celsius. In the Hisar region, it even crossed 44 degrees Celsius. Hot and dry winds swept the region during the day. “It is difficult to move about in the open from 11 a.m. till late afternoon because of the scorching winds blowing across the region in the past few days”, said a local vegetable vendor.

“Even brief pre-monsoon showers at this stage in this region can be a big help to us”, says Mr Mukhtiar Singh, a farmer from Raulu Majra village in Ropar district. “Reports in the media regarding the delay in the arrival of the monsoon have saddened us”, he added.

The regional Meteorological Office here has received reports from its headquarters in Delhi regarding the advancing of the monsoon today in the coastal areas of Maharashtra and Goa and in the North-East. Reports of good rainfall in the past 24 hours have come from various parts of Assam.

For the past nine days, the monsoon did not advance in the coastal areas of Kerala, Goa and West Bengal. The monsoon entered Kerala on June 5 against the officially predicted date of June 1. And then after making a little headway, its march to Central India stopped on June 8. By now, the monsoon should have covered entire Maharashtra, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh and the North-East.

Mr Chatar Singh, Director, Regional Meteorological Office, told TNS that the monsoon should arrive in this region by June 29. “We have got no intimation till date from our head office that the arrival of the monsoon will be delayed,” he added.

He said the date (June 29) for the arrival of the monsoon had been calculated on the basis of the records of the rainy season. However, the monsoon could hit this region early or be delayed by a few days. There was always scope for error, he added.