Rain, snow in Himachal end prolonged dry spell

Kullu: Ending a prolonged dry spell, it finally rained in the lower and mid hills, while the upper hills, including Manali and Dalhousie, received snowfall on Wednesday. Many other tourist towns in Himachal Pradesh received the season’s first snowfall.According to the weather department, along with Lahaul Spiti and Kinnaur, the upper reaches of Kullu, Mandi, Chamba and Kangra districts received light to heavy snowfall.It also snowed in the Banjar valley of Kullu district, including Jalori Jot, blocking the roads and cutting off the entire area. By afternoon it had snowed more than one foot at the Atal Tunnel, making driving on the road extremely dangerous and forcing the police to stop all the traffic beyond Nehru Kund near Manali.Manali police rescued over 300 tourists who got stranded at the Atal tunnel late Wednesday evening due to sudden heavy snowfall. According to Manali DSP K D Sharma, around 50 vehicles had got stuck at the Atal Tunnel and were safely guided back to Manali. Keylong, Koksar, Sissu, Kaza, Udaipur, and Sumdo in Lahaul Spiti recorded heavy snowfall by Wednesday evening.In the neighbouring Chamba district, all the upper reaches, including the tribal areas of Pangi and Bharmour, were covered by a white blanket. In Shimla district, places including Narkanda, Kufri and Fagu received snowfall. It also snowed in the upper reaches of Kangra and Kinnaur districts, including Sangla.Heavy snowfall in the upper reaches blocked 130 roads, including four national highways. According to the state disaster management authority (SDMA), a maximum of 120 roads remained blocked in Lahaul Spiti district followed by five in Kullu and three in Chamba district.The snow and rain also triggered power outages in many parts of the state. According to the SDMA, 395 distribution transformer regions (DTR) were disrupted throughout the state with a majority 188 in Chamba district, followed by 120 in Una district. As many as 34 DTRs were disrupted in the Banjar area of Kullu district.The meteorological centre in Shimla said it rained 9.9 mm in Chamba, 9.6 mm in Kullu, 6.5 mm in Shimla, 4.8 mm in Mandi, 3.9 mm in Hamirpur, 3.8 mm in Kangra and 2.3 mm in Bilaspur. Overall, it rained 6.1 mm in the state till Wednesday evening.As per the met data, in Jan, the total rainfall recorded was 6.2 mm, which was 93% less than the normal rainfall of 85.3 mm.It may also be mentioned that even in Nov and Dec the state had received negligible rainfall. In Nov 2023, the state recorded a rainfall of 12.2 mm – 38% less than the normal rainfall of 19.7 mm. In Dec, it rained only 5.8 mm.On Wednesday, Kukumseri in Lahaul Spiti was the coldest place in Himachal with a minimum temperature of -2.8°C. Una was the warmest with the maximum temperature of 24°C. The weather department has predicted rains and snow at most places in the middle and high hills of the state on Thursday as well, and then on Feb 3 and 4.
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