Delhi on Tuesday got relief from the scorching heat as the southwest monsoon brought light rain to the Capital. The India Meteorological Department confirmed the advancement of the monsoons in the city and the rest of the country.

“Thunderstorm with light to moderate intensity rain and winds with speed of 20to 40 km/hour would occur over and adjoining areas of many places of Delhi, NCR (Bahadurgarh, Gurugram, Manesar, Faridabad, Loni Dehat, Hindon AF Station, Ghaziabad, Noida)...during next two hours,” the weather department tweeted.

The India Meteorological Department said that the monsoon had reached parts of Uttar Pradesh, Punjab, Haryana and Rajasthan on Tuesday. “Thus, the Southwest Monsoon has covered [the] entire country on 13th July, against the normal date of 8th July,” the weather department’s bulletin read.

However, the monsoon season arrived in Delhi almost 16 days behind schedule, making this the first such delay in 19 years. In 2002, the city received its first rain of the season on July 19, according to the weather department.

The Capital usually gets rain by June 27 and the monsoons cover the entire country by July 8. Last year, the southwest monsoons had reached Delhi on June 25 and it covered the rest of the country by June 26.

“Such type of failure by numerical models in prediction of monsoon advance over Delhi is rare and uncommon,” the weather department said on Monday. Delhi has so far received 67% less rain than usual, putting the city in the category of “large deficient” states.

The rains on Tuesday caused waterlogging in some parts of Delhi, including near the All India Institute Of Medical Sciences and the city’s Som Vihar area. It also disrupted traffic and led to congestion in roads in Delhi’s Dhaula Kuan neighbourhood, reported ANI.

The India Mereological Department said that heavy rain was expected on Tuesday in several states. An orange alert has been issued for Rajasthan and Jammu and Kashmir, and a yellow alert was sounded for Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand, and Uttar Pradesh for Tuesday, reported the Hindustan Times. The colour-coded warnings are based on the ascending order of the intensity of an extreme weather event.

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Himachal Pradesh

The state is expected to receive heavy rain on Tuesday too. The heavy rainfall has caused water levels to rise in major rivers, including Tawi, in Jammu.

On Monday, as many as six houses were swept away and more than 10 people were feared trapped after a landslide in Himachal Pradesh’s Kangra district. The landslide at Boh village in the Shahpur sub-division occurred after the region was hit by heavy rain.

Chief Minister Jairam Thakur told ANI that two people had died in the last two days. “Rescue operation for 10 missing people is underway in Kangra,” he said, adding that he will visit Dharmshala for inspections.

“Four people are stranded on an island in the Giri river in the Sirmaur district,” Thakur told the news agency. “The stranded persons will be airlifted, we have contacted National Disaster Response Force.”

The National Disaster Response Force has sent three teams for rescue and search operations in the flash flood-hit regions in Kangra district, an official told PTI. The teams were sent after heavy rains hit parts of Kangra, and many residents were reportedly stranded near Boh and Tatwani villages, a spokesperson said. One team has started the operations in Tatwani.

One woman died due to the heavy rain-triggered landslides, but the police said they were yet to ascertain the details. “We don’t have exact information of causalities,” Kangra Senior Superintendent of Police Vimukt Ranjan told the Hindustan Times. “Exact figures regarding loss of life and property will be known in the coming days.”

Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union Home Minister Amit Shah said that the situation in the state was being closely monitored.

Meanwhile, lightning strikes killed at least 67 people across Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh on Sunday. Scattered rainfall was reported in parts of these states.