By IANS,
Shimla : The hills of Himachal Pradesh were warm again Wednesday as monsoon remained elusive, with the state’s Paonta Sahib town recording a high of 39 degrees Celsius, the weather office here said.
But the state will soon get relief from the unusually high temperatures as the Met. office forecast rains and thundershowers across the region due to a western disturbance. Western disturbance is a meteorological term used to describe an air pressure and temperature system that causes rains.
Shimla recorded a high of 24.5 degrees Celsius, three degrees above the average for this time of the year, an official of the meteorological office told IANS.
Sundernagar in Mandi district recorded a maximum temperature of 33.6 degrees Celsius while Dharamsala in Kangra district was 2.5 notches above average at 29.6 degrees Celsius.
Kalpa, some 250 km from Shimla, was warm at 25.8 degrees Celsius, three notches above average.
The Met department said there could be moderate rain or thundershowers in popular tourist resorts like Shimla, Narkanda, Kufri, Kasauli, Manali, Palampur, Chamba and Dalhousie from July 21 onwards.
Himachal Pradesh has received 46 percent less monsoon rains till Tuesday, affecting agricultural activities and the standing crops, officials said.
“The overall monsoon was below average in the state. From June 1 to July 17, the state saw 46 percent deficit rain,” Meteorological Office director Manmohan Singh said.