New Delhi, Sep 17 (PTI) Parts of the country were lashed by rains on Thursday, while dry and sultry weather continued to prevail in most of north India.

Showers eluded Delhi for the ninth consecutive day as the city experienced a clear, sunny sky with the maximum temperature settling at 37 degrees Celsius, three notches above the season's average.

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The minimum temperature settled at 27.1 degrees Celsius, two notches above normal while the humidity levels oscillated between 85 and 48 per cent.

The weatherman has forecast partly cloudy sky for Friday with light rain or a drizzle towards the evening.

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In neighbouring Punjab and Haryana, the maximum temperatures too hovered above normal limits.

The maximum temperature in Narnaul, Bhiwani and Hisar in Haryana settled at 38.5 degrees Celsius, 38.3 degrees Celsius and 38 degrees Celsius respectively.

Ambala and Karnal recorded respective highs of 36.2 degrees Celsius and 35.2 degrees Celsius, according to the meteorological department here.

Chandigarh, the common capital of the two states, recorded a high of 36 degrees Celsius.

In Punjab, Patiala recorded a high of 36 degrees Celsius while Amritsar and Ludhiana recorded above normal maximum temperatures of 36 degrees Celsius and 36.6 degrees Celsius respectively.

According to the Met department forecast, mainly dry weather is likely to prevail at most places in Haryana and Punjab until Friday.

In Jharkhand, three people including two teenagers died after being struck by lightning in separate incidents in Bagodar, Bengabad and Pachamba police station areas on Wednesday evening, officials said.

A 16-year-old girl, a 15-year-old boy and a 26-year- old man were killed in the lightning strikes, they said.

Rain lashed most places in West Bengal, Sikkim, Assam, Meghalaya, Arunachal Pradesh, Goa, Karnataka, Andaman and Nicobar Islands, the India Meteorological Department (IMD) report said.

Many places in Vidarbha, Madhya Maharashtra, Marathwada, Nagaland, Manipur, Mizoram, Tripura, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana and Kerala too received rain, it said.

While a few places in Uttarakhand, Gujarat, Bihar, Madhya Pradesh and Lakshadweep reported rainfall, isolated places in eastern Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan, Himachal Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, Odisha, Kutch in Gujarat, Tamil Nadu and Puducherry too were lashed by rain.

According to the IMD, fairly widespread rainfall with isolated heavy falls is very likely over Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Kerala, Goa and parts of Maharashtra and Karnataka during the next two days.

Under the influence of likely formation of a low pressure area over northeast Bay of Bengal and consequent strengthening of lower level winds along the west coast; fairly widespread rainfall with isolated heavy to very heavy falls is likely over Andaman and Nicobar Islands, Odisha, Andhra Pradesh, Goa, Karnataka and Kerala between September 19 to 21, the IMD said.

Meanwhile, moderate thunderstorm with lightning is very likely at isolated places over southeast Rajasthan, eastern Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Jharkhand, Odisha, West Bengal, Sikkim, Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana and Karnataka during the next 12 hours, it said.

The report said that dry weather is likely to prevail in northwest India and there will be no significant change in temperatures in most parts of the country during the next three to four days.

(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)