The weather department is expecting a five-day spell of heavy to very heavy rainfall over parts of Punjab and Haryana till July 23, and has upgraded its rainfall alert from yellow to orange for July 20-22.Active monsoon conditions are likely over north-west India over the next six to seven days, according to a bulletin issued by the India Meteorological Department (IMD) on July 18. Fairly widespread rainfall is expected at many places in these states from July 20 to 23. Light to moderate rainfall is likely at a few places on July 19 and 24.The 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. Both day and 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 noticeably deficient in both the states after being above normal at the start of the season. The IMD has termed the prevailing Monsoon activity over Punjab and Haryana as “weak”.From July 1 to 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, 19 per cent below normal.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 percent in both states.IMD has also predicted fairly 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.