Heavy to very heavy rainfall is expected over some places in Punjab from July 27 to July 31, with widespread rains likely over most parts of the state during the next few days.Light to moderate rainfall is likely at a few places on July 26 and 27 and at many places from July 28 to 31, according to bulletin issued by the India Meteorological Department (IMD) on July 25.Heavy rainfall is likely at a few places on July 27, 30 and 31, for which the weather department has issued a yellow alert, while heavy to very heavy rainfall is likely at isolated places on July 28 to 29, prompting an orange alert. The northern and eastern areas of the state are expected to receive more rains than the south-western parts.Terming the prevailing Monsoon status over Punjab as “normal”, the IMD said that over the past 24 hours, light to moderate rain occurred at many places in the state and thunderstorms and gusty were observed at isolated places.Kapurthala, Faridkot, Fatehgarh Sahib and Patiala were the only districts in the state that remained dry during this period and day as well as night temperatures across the state remained normal. The highest maximum temperature in the state was 35.6 degrees Celsius at Patiala whereas the lowest minimum temperature was 25.5 degrees Celsius at Gurdaspur.The Monsoon in Punjab so far is deficient by 23 percent. From July 1 till the morning of July 25, the state received 100.9 mm rain against the long period average (LPA) of 130.3 mm for this period.The Monsoon has been below the LPA in 17 districts, with the shortfall ranging up to 65 percent. Amritsar, Faridkot, Gurdaspur, Mog and Pathankot are the only districts where the July rainfall has been above the LPA.Satellite images released by the IMD show a dense cloud cover over eastern and southern Punjab, parts of northern Punjab and adjoining areas of Jammu region. A light cloud cover is also seen over most parts of Himachal Pradesh.The IMD has also predicted fairly widespread to widespread rainfall over many parts of Himachal Pradesh, Jammu and Kashmir, Ladakh and Haryana till July 31. Isolated heavy to very heavy rainfall is also possible at a few places in these states during this period.