Vehicles ply along a rain-soaked road in Patna on Sunday. The city witnessed trace rainfall for a couple of minutes in the afternoon owing to isolated thunderstorms. Ashish Sen, director, Patna meteorological centre, claimed that the thunderstorm was a pre-monsoon activity and it was intimation of advancement of southwest monsoon towards Bihar. “We are expecting the monsoon to hit Bihar by June 18. Till then, north eastern and eastern Bihar would receive moderate rainfall. Cloud formation is expected to start over Patna as well from tomorrow (Monday) and the city would witness localised thunderstorm activities till the rain-bearing winds hit the city,” said Sen. He added that the maximum temperature would plunge by one or two degrees over the next two days. Text by Piyush Kumar Tripathi, picture by Ranjeet Kumar Dey