A representational image of lightning.
In Assam, the death toll in flood-related incidents increased to 84 after five more fatalities were reported, with Prime Minister Narendra Modi speaking to Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal on the flood situation in the state.
The total number of people losing their lives in flood and landslides in Assam this year is 110.
While 84 died in flood-related incidents, landslides claimed 26 lives.
Floods have affected over 25 lakh people in 24 of the 33 districts of Assam and has destroyed houses, crops, roads and bridges at several places.
Heavy rains caused waterlogging in parts of the national capital, including at Minto Bridge where a 56-year-old man drowned after his mini-truck was submerged.
According to officials, waterlogging in several areas of the city due to heavy rains affected movement of traffic at key stretches.
The IMD, in its daily bulletin, said fairly widespread rainfall is likely over Jammu and Kashmir, Ladakh, Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Punjab, Haryana, Chandigarh, Delhi and Uttar Pradesh during the next three days and rainfall intensity and distribution is very likely to decrease significantly thereafter.
Isolated extremely heavy falls are also very likely over Assam and Meghalaya during the next three days and over Bihar during the next 24 hours, it said.
In Bihar, 10 people were killed in lightning strikes during a thunderstorm in seven districts of the state, officials said.
Three casualties were reported from Purnea, two from Begusarai and one each from Patna, Saharsa, East Champaran, Madhepura and Darbhanga districts, they said.
More than 160 people have died due to lightning strikes in the state in the past three weeks.
In Uttarakhand, swirling waters of the swollen Gori river following heavy rains washed away four houses and large tracts of cultivable land at Chori Bagar village in Bangapani sub division of the district, an official said.
However, there was no casualty as occupants of the houses had been evacuated to safety in advance, he said.
Light to moderate rains accompanied with thunderstorms occurred at a few places in Uttar Pradesh, while isolated places received heavy rains, the MeT department said.
Several places in Himachal Pradesh received light to moderate rainfall in the last 24 hours, with Dharamshala recording the highest amount of rainfall at 67.6 mm, followed by Una (43.4 mm), Sundernagar (38 mm), Palampur (33mm) and Kangra (30 mm), the Shimla MeT Centre Director Manmohan Singh said.
He said 29 mm rain was recorded in Dalhousie, 16.8 mm in Shimla and 4 mm each in Kufri and Manali.
Maximum temperatures hovered around normal levels in most parts of Punjab and Haryana, even as a few areas in both states witnessed rains. In Punjab's Amritsar, the maximum temperature settled at 33.7 degrees Celsius and the city witnessed five mm of rainfall.
The maximum temperature of Ludhiana, which also saw 1.4 mm of rainfall, was recorded at 35.2 degrees Celsius, two degrees above the normal.
Hisar, which received 0.8 mm rainfall, recorded a maximum temperature of 35 degrees Celsius.
According to the IMD, the country has received six per cent more rainfall than normal so far in this monsoon season, but precipitation in parts of north India remains deficient.
The IMD has four meteorological divisions and rainfall has been more than normal in the south peninsula, central India, and east and northeast India divisions.
But the northwest India division, which covers Jammu and Kashmir, Ladakh, Uttarakhand, Himachal Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, Haryana, Punjab, Delhi and Rajasthan, has recorded a 19 per cent deficiency, it added.
Source: PTI
Comment: On the same day 2 were killed by lightning strikes in the state of Jharkhand and 2 boys were killed by a strike on the prior day in Feni, Bangladesh.