Hindustan Times (Delhi)

Mercury dips ‘below zero’ at Maha’s popular hill station

- HT Correspond­ent letters@hindustant­imes.com

MAHARASHTR­A : Tourists arriving at Mahableshw­ar, a popular hill station from western Maharashtr­a, were in for a pleasant surprise on Sunday morning.

Locals claimed that mercury dipped to freezing point at Venna Lake and snowflake-like frozen dew drops were seen in the surroundin­g areas.

While the Indian Meteorolog­ical Department said it did not have observator­y at Venna lake, the locals asserted they measured the temperatur­e, which was zero degree Celsius.

Accordingt­oIMD,theaverage minimumtem­peratureat­Mahabalesh­war was 10.6 ° C. Most roads to the lake wore a snowwhite look.

Two years ago, Mahabalesh­war witnessed the mercury plunging to one degree Celsius, with similar conditions prevailing in the area. According to the IMD, the current fall in temperatur­e across the state is a result of snowing in J&K and Himachal Pradesh. IMD forecast says the minimum temperatur­e will continue to remain the same for the next 24 hours. JAMMU: After remaining closed for around 48 hours, the 300-km Jammu-Srinagar national highway (NH) was made partially operationa­l for movement since Sunday morning with improvemen­t in weather conditions.

However, the air link to Valley, which too was shut for the last couple of days, was fully restored on Sunday.

Snowfall coupled with heavy downpour since Friday morning caused roadblocks and also triggered landslides on various places on the highway, leaving 1,000 odd vehicles stranded.

Nihar Ranjan deputy superinten­dent of police (DSP) (traffic), Banihal, said “Though there was a mild snowfall around Jawahar tunnel on Sunday, we made the highway accessible for vehicles. HTC

 ?? HT ?? A man scraps frozen dew from the floating decks at Venna Lake in Mahableshw­ar.
HT A man scraps frozen dew from the floating decks at Venna Lake in Mahableshw­ar.

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