The India Meteorological Department (IMD) has forecast that Chandigarh Tricity will endure one more day of hot and humid weather before the Southwest Monsoon brings thunderstorms and heavy rain from Thursday through Monday. The Meteorological Centre Chandigarh stated that the monsoon has advanced into parts of Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Himachal Pradesh, and Ladakh. The Northern Limit of Monsoon (NLM) now runs through Surat, Indore, Sagar, Sidhi, Azamgarh, Ayodhya, Bareilly, Dehradun, and Mandi.
Monsoon Conditions Becoming Favorable
According to the IMD, conditions are turning favorable for the monsoon to push into more areas of Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Himachal Pradesh, Jammu & Kashmir, and parts of Chandigarh, Punjab, and Haryana over the next three to four days. Light to moderate rain is expected at isolated places on Tuesday, with activity picking up from Wednesday onward. Moderate rain is likely at a few places on July 1, intensifying to many places between July 2 and 6 across Chandigarh, Punjab, and Haryana. The spell will be accompanied by thunderstorms and lightning with gusty winds of 40-50 kmph at isolated places from July 1 onward, while heavy rain is likely at isolated places on July 2-4 and 6 in Punjab, and from July 2-6 in Chandigarh and Haryana.
Yellow Alert Issued for July 1-4
The IMD’s district-wise warnings place Chandigarh and parts of Haryana and Punjab under a yellow ‘be updated’ alert from July 1 through July 4. Authorities have cautioned residents against keeping harvested crops in the open, venturing into waterlogged areas, sheltering under trees, or standing near weak structures during the thundery spell. The IMD corroborates this outlook: dry weather is expected on June 30, followed by light to moderate rain at a few places on July 1 (with a thunderstorm/gusty-wind warning), and light to moderate rain at most places from July 2 to 4, each day carrying a thunderstorm, lightning, gusty wind, and isolated heavy rain warning.
June 2026: Third Driest June in 14 Years
Chandigarh’s pre-monsoon wait has been a parched one. According to the IMD’s monthly weather report, the Union Territory received just 39.3 mm of rainfall in June 2026 against a normal of 155.5 mm, a 75% deficit, categorising the month as “deficient.” A look back at the past 14 years of June rainfall data shows this is the third driest June since 2013, behind only 2024 (11.9 mm, a steep 92% departure) and 2019 (24.8 mm, 81% below normal). By contrast, June 2025 had brought 213 mm of rain, a 37% surplus, underscoring just how sharp this year’s reversal has been. Other notably dry Junes in the period include 2014 (-64%) and 2022 (-61%), while 2013 saw the wettest June on record in this dataset at 251.5 mm, a 110% surplus.
Heaviest Single-Day Rainfall in June 2026
The IMD’s station-wise data also shows that the city’s heaviest single-day rainfall this June came on June 12, with 21.7 mm recorded at the IMD Chandigarh city observatory and 32.0 mm at Chandigarh airport, still well short of the kind of totals seen in wetter years; June 2025 alone had recorded a 10-year high of 262.1 mm for the month.
Tuesday’s Weather: Hot and Humid
Tuesday offered little relief from the heat. The maximum temperature in Chandigarh settled at 37°C, 2.6°C cooler than Monday’s 39.6°C, and four notches below Sunday’s 41.0°C but still 1.5°C above normal. At the airport observatory, the high touched 35.5°C, 0.2°C below the seasonal average. Nights have offered scant respite. The minimum temperature in the city stood at 29.8°C, a sweltering 2.7°C above normal, while the airport recorded an even warmer night low of 30.8°C, 3.7°C above normal, having touched 31.0°C the previous night. Humidity levels remained high, with relative humidity at the city observatory ranging between 41% and 71%, and winds largely calm through the day before turning light and southeasterly.
Context of June 2026 Heat
The monthly data places this heat in context: the city’s highest maximum this June was 42.1°C on June 10 (42.7°C at the airport a day later, on June 11), with an average maximum of 38.1°C for the month, well below the scorching 45.8°C peak and 41.4°C average maximum recorded in June 2024, the hottest June of the past decade. Nights, too, dipped lower than usual this June, with the lowest minimum touching 19.9°C on June 12, against an average minimum of 24.9°C for the month.
Outlook: Cooling Trend Ahead
With the heat finally expected to break, the IMD’s five-day outlook points to a steady cooling trend alongside the rain: maximum temperatures are forecast to ease from 39-40°C on June 30-July 1 to around 36-38°C by July 2-4, while minimums are expected to drop into the mid-to-high 20s as cloud cover and rainfall increase. Residents have been advised to stay alert for thunderstorm and lightning warnings through the first week of July as the monsoon makes its delayed but decisive entry into the region.
