Snow, rain lead to dip in temperature in Himachal

The higher reaches of Himachal Pradesh received a fresh spell of snow while many other parts were lashed by rains, with the weather office warning of heavy rainfall in the state on Wednesday.

The sky remained overcast in Shimla and surrounding areas with fog reducing the visibility to a few metres on Wednesday morning.

An appreciable fall has been witnessed in the minimum temperature across the state and Keylong in tribal Lahaul and Spiti district was the coldest recording a low of minus 0.1 degrees Celsius.

Bhuntar with 35 mm of rains was wettest in the region followed by Chamba 33 mm, Shimla 32 mm, Sundernagar 30 mm, Palampur 27 mm, sarahan 26 mm, Kukumseri and Bharmaur 23 mm each, Berthin 22 mm, Mandi and Dalhousie 20 mm each, Jubbarhatti 19 mm, Bilaspur 16 mm, Dharamshala 15.5 mm.

The local MeT office has warned of heavy rainfall, thunderstorm, lightning and hail storm in plains, low and mid hills on April 19 and thunderstorm and lightning at isolated places on April 20 and 21.

It also predicted light to moderate rains at many places in plains, lower hills and mid hills and light to moderate rains or snowfall in higher hills on April 19,20 and 21.

Hailstorm and rains this time of the season are considered harmful for the crops especially standing wheat crop and fruit plants and the MeT office has advised the growers to take adequate safety measures and follow the advisories and guidelines issued by departments concerned.