Rain, snow, hail lash across several parts of Uttarakhand

Rain, snow, hail lash across several parts of Uttarakhand

Ajay Ramola

Mussoorie, Jan 21

Rain, hail, and snow lashed across several parts of Uttarakhand, resulting in a dip in the mercury putting normal life out of gear.

Rain accompanied by strong winds and a brief spell of hail was experienced in the hill station of Mussoorie around 5 PM on Friday, forcing the residents to remain indoors. The street vendors kept themselves by warm in the company of the coal lit oven.

The higher areas around Mussoorie such as Nag Tibba and Dhanaulti experienced a brief spell of snow, rain, and hail. The Met Department has attributed this rain to the western disturbance. The water supply was disrupted at Dhanaulti for several hours due to intermittent rain.

The spell of rain, hail was witnessed in the higher regions of Uttarkashi, Rudraprayag, Chamoli, Bageshwar and Pithoragarh districts.

The extreme cold wave conditions made an impact on wildlife too especially native birds in the wild.

The cold weather has forced some birds of rare species namely yellow-breasted greenfinch, rufous-breasted accentor, rufous sibia etc to come at the lower level in the hills as they were spotted in the Doon valley.

Meanwhile, the farmers involved in growing temperate fruits were delighted at this fresh spell of rain, but some farmers were unhappy at the spell of hail as it resulted in damage to the standing vegetable crops and posed a risk of injury to the cattle.

MET department Dehradun has predicted snowfall which is likely to occur at the places with height 2200 m and above in the districts of Garhwal and Kumaon region of Uttarakhand and light to moderate rain/snowfall is likely to occur in most places’ other places in the state.

The MET department has issued an advisory to cover the harvested produce if in the field with polythene sheet and keep animals away from open water., The department also advised to keep away from all the objects that conduct electricity as could result in a fatal accident due to thunder and lightning. The state government authorities have been advised to make necessary arrangements for road clearances at places that experience snow in the state.

Several tourists have extended their stay in expectation of snowfall in Mussoorie and Dhanaulti.

The Election Commission has also directed the returning officers to make adequate arrangements at the polling booths that witness snowfall in hilly districts of the state.