Weather today: Rain, thunderstorms expected in Delhi and Kolkata; orange alert for Himachal Pradesh
The India Meteorological Department (IMD) has issued an orange alert - indicating heavy rainfall - for parts of Himachal Pradesh, accompanied by lightning and strong winds. An orange alert has been sounded in the following districts: Kullu, Mandi, Shimla, Solan, and Sirmaur. The weather agency has also issued a yellow alert for some other areas, which are likely to witness thunderstorms with lightning and winds reaching 30–50 km/h.
The weather across the hill state was largely dry on Tuesday, with a few places receiving light rain and snowfall.
Kufri, Karsog, and Guler received 20 mm of rainfall, followed by 10 mm in Pandoh, Sundernagar, Shimla, Gohar, Aghar, Mandi, Bharmaur, Paonta Sahib, Solan, Chopal, Bilaspur, and Una, according to the meteorological centre. Hansa received 2.5 cm of snowfall, news agency PTI reported.
Also Read | Monsoon rain to slow down after swift start
The weatherman has also issued a rainfall warning for the national capital and Kolkata. Residents of Delhi woke up to cooler, more pleasant weather today, with light winds making the morning comfortable. The sky remained overcast, providing relief from the heat and humidity. A dip in temperatures was also observed across several areas of the city.
The IMD has issued a yellow alert, predicting further rainfall, thunderstorms, and gusty winds.
The maximum temperature is expected to settle between 33–35 degrees Celsius; the forecast includes partly cloudy skies with light rain, thunderstorms, and gusty winds up to 60 km/h during storm activity.
Meanwhile, for Kolkata too, rain and thunderstorm activity has been forecast for today.
In the northeast, several states continue to be severely affected by floods and landslides caused by relentless heavy rainfall, with the overall death toll rising to 47 and more than 6.33 lakh people impacted as of Tuesday. Assam has reported 17 deaths, including five due to landslides in and around Guwahati. This is followed by 12 fatalities in Arunachal Pradesh, six each in Meghalaya and Mizoram, three in Sikkim, two in Tripura, and one in Nagaland.
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Mr Lahariya advised the public to gather information from reliable sources and not to forward unverified messages, while Mr Rath suggested that citizens keep a watch for the virulence of newly emerging strains. The experts also stressed on the role of authorities. "National and state governments in India should keep a watch on cases, monitor the trends in new cases and share data widely. The linkage between infections and clinical outcomes should be explored to understand the clinical features of the variants in circulation," Mr Lahariya said. Mr Rath drew attention to systemic issues that remain regarding preparedness of public health systems and availability of healthcare facilities across sections of the society should a virulent variant emerge. "The catch is, how efficiently, systematically and rigorously are our public health systems tracking virus strains, their infectivity and their virulence, not only for SARS-CoV-2 but for any other infection?" he asked. "Are we making next generation Covid vaccines at all? Are we making them available widely and affordably? Are we even carefully tracking evidence to see how well or poorly the current vaccine-induced immunity functions against emerging strains?" he added. The poor and vulnerable would need special protection "but are masks being made widely and freely available? 'And if not, we are throwing poor communities onto their own resources even for taking such simple precautions, and that is a systemic problem," Mr Rath said.
