MeT office warns of heavy rain in Himachal Pradesh

The meteorological department on Friday issued a red weather warning for several districts in Himachal Pradesh and an orange warning for extremely heavy rainfall in the entire state over the weekend, an official said.

While the MeT department issued the orange warning for the entire state, the red warning has been issued for Una, Bilaspur, Hamirpur, Chamba, Kangra and Mandi districts for August 17 and for Kangra, Shimla, Solan and Mandi districts on August 18.

The weather department issues colour-coded warnings to alert public ahead of severe or hazardous weather, which has the potential to cause "damage, widespread disruption or danger to life".

The orange warning is for conditions that have the capacity to impact lives significantly, while red is the most serious kind of weather warning.

When a red warning is issued, people are asked to stay away from areas which could be potentially dangerous. They are also urged to follow the advice of the emergency services and local authorities.

Heavy to very heavy rainfall is likely to occur at most places in the state on August 17 and 18, Director, Shimla MeT Centre, Manmohan Singh said.

Heavy rain -- between 64.5 mm to 115.5 mm -- may occur at a few places, whereas very heavy rainfall -- 115.5 mm or above per day -- is likely to occur at isolated places in the state on Saturday and Sunday, he added.

The roads might be blocked especially in Chamba, Kullu, Lahaul-Spiti, Kangra, Mandi and Shimla districts due to moderate to heavy rainfall on August 17 and 18, Singh said.

Singh said the rain activity will decrease significantly from August 19.

There was normal monsoon with heavy rainfall in isolated places in the districts of Bilaspur, Mandi and Sirmaur in the last 24 hours, the MeT department said.

Between Thursday evening and Friday, the highest rainfall of 115 mm was recorded in Ghumarwin, followed by Sarkaghat (110 mm), Jatton Barrage (84 mm), Solan (62.6 mm), Gohar (58 mm), Nadaun (53 mm), Kufri (50 mm), Nagrota Suriyan (48 mm), Nahan (46 mm), Shimla (20.6 mm), Dalhousie (10 mm) and Kasauli (5 mm), it said.

The highest temperature in the state was recorded in Una at 32.4 degrees Celsius, whereas the lowest temperature was recorded in Keylong at 12.8 degrees Celsius, Singh said.