Thundershowers have enveloped the plains of northwest and even marched into east and east-central India with localised heavy rainfall being reported from isolated places in the region during the 24 hours ending Monday afternoon.

Scattered rain or snowfall has occurred over Jammu and Kashmir and Himachal Pradesh and isolated over Uttarakhand ahead of the arrival of an ‘active’ western disturbance from across the border.

An India Meteorological Department (IMD) update said that widespread rainfall has been reported from Orissa while it was fairly widespread over Haryana, east Madhya Pradesh, Jharkhand and Chhattisgarh.

It was scattered over Punjab, east Rajasthan, Gangetic West Bengal and Vidarbha.

The fresh ‘active’ western disturbance would affect western Himalayan region from Tuesday onwards and the plains of northwest India mainly from Wednesday to Saturday.

A weather warning issued by the IMD said that isolated thunder squalls or hailstorms may occur over Orissa, Chhattisgarh, Gangetic West Bengal, Jharkhand and north Andhra Pradesh until Tuesday evening.

The weather will shift gradually to south India, with an outlook valid until Saturday saying that scattered rain or thundershowers would occur over Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Rayalaseema and south Karnataka.

But fairly widespread precipitation would break out fresh over northwest India with isolated thunder squalls or hailstorms over the plains of the region during this period, a condition normally associated with the arrival of a western disturbance.