Mercury dips after fresh spell of snow, showers in Himachal
36 mm of rainfall makes tourist town Manali wettest place in the state
SHIMLA/DHARAMSHALA: The state was in for a breather from scorching heat as night temperature dropped several notches after a fresh spell of rainfall in the plains and snowfall in the higher reaches.
The Indian Meteorological Department’s (IMD) Shimla centre director Surender Paul said the recorded minimum temperature remained below normal amid the showers.
Famous tourist town of Manali was the wettest, receiving 36 mm of rainfall followed by Bhunter with 35.2 mm rainfall and Chamba 33mm.
State capital Shimla received 31.5mm of rainfall, while Sundernagar, Palampur, Kufri, Sarhan, Kukumseri, Bertin and Dalhousie all recorded rainfall between 20-30mm. On the lower side, Mandi received 19.8 mm of rainfall, Jubberhatti 18.6 mm, Dharamshala 15.4 mm and Narkanda 12.5mm.
Manali’s day temperature dropped from 25.4° C to 21° C, while the minimum also came down from 12° C to 6° C.
The temperature, meanwhile, dropped to -0.1° C in Keylong, the headquarters of tribal
WET SPELL LIKELY TO CONTINUE TILL APRIL 22 WITH AN ORANGE ALERT FOR HEAVY RAINFALL, THUNDERSTORM
Lahaul-Spiti district, which was the coldest place in the state. Narkanda also shivered at 4.4° C, Kalpa at 5.4° C. Fellow tourist town of Kufri, located on the outskirts of Shimla also saw the mercury drop to a low temperature of 6.7° C, while other popular hilltown destinations of Mashobra and Dalhousie recorded lows of 7.8° C and 7.9° C respectively. Reckongpeo in Kinnaur had a night temperature of 8.4° C, Shimla 8.8° C and Dharamshala 11.4° C.
Power disrupted, roads blocked across state
Several areas in the state also plunged into darkness as 615 electricity transformers malfunctioned due thunderstorms. Maximum 318 transformers were reported broken in Una, 217 in Kullu and 19 in Lahaul and Spiti district, officials of district disaster management authority (DDMA) said.
Besides, eight roads including two national highways were blocked.
The Manali-Leh highway is open for four-wheel drive vehicles only for the Solangnala to Atal Tunnel stretch and up to Tandi on the north side.
The road between Tandi to Darcha remained closed amid snowfall, as did the stretches between Darcha to Sarchu and Koksar to Rohtang Pass. National Highway 505 was also closed between Gramphu to Chotta Dara.
Paul said the wet spell is likely to continue till April 22 with an orange alert for heavy rainfall, thunderstorm, lightning and hail likely at isolated places on Wednesday and a yellow alert on April 20 and 21.