Moderate to heavy rainfall on Saturday lashed several parts of Himachal Pradesh, with the local Met office issuing an orange alert of heavy to very heavy rain at isolated places in five districts on Sunday and nine districts on Wednesday.

According to the orange alert, heavy to very heavy rain is likely at isolated places in Hamirpur, Kangra, Mandi, Shimla and Sirmaur on Sunday and nine out of 12 districts barring Kullu, Kinnaur and Lahaul and Spiti on Wednesday.

The Met office also issued yellow warning of heavy rain in majority of the districts on Monday and Tuesday.

In the past 24 hours, Kangra was the wettest in the state with 87.8 mm of rain followed by Nagrota Suriyan 56.4 mm, Jogindernagar 54 mm, Guler 40.8 mm, Nadaun 30 mm, Sujanpur Tira 28.5mm, Baijnath 28 mm, Palampur 20 mm and Nahan 18.2 mm.

Thunderstorms accompanied with rain and gusty winds of 37 kmph lashed Sundernagar, Kangra and Bajaura.

The conditions are favourable for further advancement of southwest monsoon over the remaining parts of Himachal Pradesh in the next two days, the Met office said.

The monsoon hit parts of the state earlier on Friday.

Meanwhile, the director general of police has issued instructions to the police officials to ensure power backup for functioning of communication equipments, generator sets, adequate fuel and test communication systems in the remote areas.

The instruction included organizing mock drills and maintaining proper inventory for rescue operations in the districts in view of the monsoon season, said an order.

There was no major change in the minimum and maximum temperatures. Kukumseri was the coldest at night recording a low of 11.8 degrees Celsius while Una was the hottest during the day with 34 degrees Celsius.

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