Weather Update: The Indian Meteorological Department (IMD) has issued a red alert in Pune and several districts have also been warned for heavy rains in Himachal Pradesh including Mandi, Kangra and Sirmaur. An orange alert has been issued by the Met department in Delhi and several other parts of India for the next three hours (approximately till 6 pm) after cloudy skies dominated northern India with heavy downpour accompanied with thunderstorms and lightning.

Streets in Punjab’s Hoshiarpur have knee-deep water near houses and commercial areas, visuals of which are all over the Internet. As heavy rains flooded streets, the city has come to a standstill.

Himachal Pradesh cloudburst-flash flood

As the tourist state is under the spell of a cloudburst, brimming waterbodies triggering flash floods, houses and roads are covered in mud. Visuals from Mandi, also under a red alert, show water flowing in residential areas.

The disaster response teams’ rescue operations are underway as dozens of people are still missing. The torrential rains have caused over 65 deaths so far. The state battles the floods and landslides caused by the cloudburst which led to over 240 road-blockages.

Locals are concerned for their livelihood, houses and family. A local, while sharing about the damage caused by the rains, expressed, “Only one house remains amidst extensive damage. All slides from here are down. Approximately 400 of our apple trees have been lost….”

Pune red-alert

With Pune under an IMD red alert, residents expect extremely heavy rainfall, thunderstorms and lightning. Mumbai’s Marine Drive also witnessed powerful waves rocking the coastline. With incessant rains since morning, the residents were seen avoiding the route.

Heavy rainfall in Srinagar

Jammu and Kashmir’s Srinagar is under the spell of heavy rainfall since morning. The monsoon arrival has brought a much-needed respite from the heat.

Monsoon arrived rather early this year with showers hitting Kerala as early as May. Higher precipitation rate and heavy rainfall has been lashing parts of India since then.