Expecting a five-day spell of heavy to very heavy rainfall over some parts of Punjab and Haryana till July 23, the weather department has upgraded its rainfall alert from yellow to orange for July 20-22.Active monsoon conditions are likely over northwest India during next 6-7 days, according to a bulletin issued by the India Meteorological Department (IMD) on July 18. Fairly widespread to widespread rains are expected at many places in these states from July 20-23, while light to moderate rainfall is likely at a few places on July 19 and 24.IMD expects heavy rainfall over areas lying along Punjab’s eastern borders, while the south-western parts of the state would receive relatively lesser rain. In Haryana, the north-eastern and south-eastern parts are likely to receive higher rainfall that the western areas.Over the past 24 hours, light to moderate rain occurred at a few places in Punjab and Haryana, while heavy to very heavy rain was experienced at isolated places in Punjab. Day as well as night temperatures remained appreciably above normal in both states.Pathankot, Hoshiarpur, Jalandhar, Ludhiana, Fatehgarh Sahib, Patiala and Ropar in Punjab, and Panchkula, Ambala, Kurukshetra, Sonepat, Bhiwani, Nuh and Yamunanagar in Haryana received varying amounts of rain.The monsoon, which had touched the region on July 1, has turned noticeable deficient in both the states after being above normal in the first few days. IMD has termed the prevailing Monsoon activity over Punjab and Haryana as “weak”.From July 1 till the morning of July 18, Punjab received 61.6 mm rain against the long period average (LPA), marking a deficiency of 33 per cent. Haryana received 67.9 mm rain against the LPA of 84.1 mm, which is 19 per cent below par.The July rainfall, at present, is above the LPA in only six districts each in Punjab and Haryana. These include Faridkot, Moga, Ferozepur, Ludhiana, Gurdaspur and Pathankot in Punjab, and Faridabad, Karnal, Kurukshetra, Palwal, Rewari and Yamunanagar in Haryana. In the remaining areas, the deficiency ranges up to 87 per cent in both states.IMD has also predicted fairly widespread to widespread rainfall likely over Jammu and Kashmir, Ladakh, Himachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand during July 18-19, along with isolated thunderstorms, lightning and gusty winds with speeds reaching 60 kmph. Heavy to very heavy rainfall at few places with extremely heavy rainfall at isolated places over these states is also possible during this period.