Shimla: The cold wave sweeping the region has pounded the higher reaches with heavy snow with the meteorological office forecast holding that further heavy snowfall could occur in the heights of Lahaul Spiti, Kinnaur, Chamba and Kullu districts over the next 48 hours.
An overcast sky with light rain showers through the day bound most city resident indoors even as offices reported late arrivals and lawmakers who had assembled for a sitting of the ongoing budget session, wound up business in a little over an hour to retire for the day.
The temperatures remained low, with the met office by evening had recorded 11 mm of rain with the day’s high at 8.2 and a low of 4.6 degree Celsius during the past 24 hours.
Life was thrown out of gear as many school children preferred to stay at home and the there were few takers at the vegetable market, shopping for the days needs.
Naresh Thakur, SDM of Peo in Kinnaur informed that the there was about 3 inches of snow at the district headquarters. “Higher up at Kalpa, snow had piled up to over a 30 centimeters, he said.
While traffic was moving about in the lower valleys of the high altitude tribal district, but the road to Sangla was blocked by landslides at several places, he added.
Temperatures dipped to minus 1.6 degree Celsius at Kalpa and recorded a high of 1.2 degree Celsius over the last 24 hours but it was coldest at Kelong, the district headquarter of Lahaul-Spiti which recorded a low of minus 3.7 degree Celsius.
Sounding an alert about heavy rain or snow, director meteorology Manmohan Singh said that snowfall was likely to occur at the tourist places in Narkanda, Manali, Rohtang Pass, Kufri, and Shimla in addition to the high reaches of Himachal Pradesh.
Heavy rainfall and snowfall was likely to occur in many places of Lahaul & Spiti, Kinnaur, Chamba, Kangra, Mandi, Kullu and Shimla districts on 2nd and 3rd March, he said.
A western disturbance as an upper air system was lying over north Pakistan and adjoining Jammu& Kashmir. It would affect western Himalayan region including Himachal Pradesh and adjoining plains of northwest India over the next 3-4 days, the weatherman’s forecast stated.
As Editor, Ravinder Makhaik leads a team of media professionals at Hill Post.
Spanning a career of over two decades in mass communication, as a Documentary Filmmaker, TV journalist, Print Media journalist and with Online & Social Media, he brings with him a vast experience. He lives in Shimla.
