Snow, rain send mercury plunging in HP, avalanche warnings issued

Authorities on Wednesday issued avalanche warnings for several areas in Himachal Pradesh as a cold wave was further aggravated following fresh snowfall and rain in the state's tribal and hilly regions.

The Defence Geoinformatics Research Establishment (DGRE), Chandigarh, has issued an avalanche warning for high altitude areas of Lahaul and Spiti, Kinnaur, Shimla, Chamba and Kullu districts until Thursday.

Since 1 January, 61 people have died owing to landslides, falling from heights, drowning, and fires in the state. Two people are still missing.

A total of 405 roads, including four national highways, were shut down by snowfall and 577 electricity transformers disrupted, the state emergency response centre said.

Lahaul and Spiti had the most number of roads, 288, closed, followed by Chamba and Kullu, which had 83 and 21 roads rendered unnavigable.

Koksar and Atal Tunnel received 45 cm of snow, followed by Sissu and Kothi, which got 30 cm. Keylong, Kusumseri, and Bharmour got 18 cm, 15.3 cm, and 8 cm of snow. Manali was wettest with 29 mm of rain, followed by Salooni, and Tissa, and Chamba, which got 25.3 mm, 20 mm, 16 mm of it. Seobagh and Baijnath got 11 mm and 8.0 mm of rain.

Minimum temperatures across the region dropped a few notches, with several places shivering under sub-zero temperatures. Kusumseri was the coldest with a low of minus 7.1 degrees, followed by Sumdo with minus 2 degrees, Bharmour and Kalpa with minus 1.2 degrees, Narkanda with minus 0.5 degree, Manali with minus 0.1 degree, and Shimla with 2.9 degrees.

Rain over the past few days has reduced the seasonal winter rain deficit from 58 per cent to 34 per cent. The state received 104.2 mm against a normal of 158 cm from 1 January to 21 February.

The local meteorological station has predicted dry weather in the lower and mid-hills for the next four days and rain or snow in isolated places in the higher hills on Thursday and Saturday, followed by another wet spell on 26 and 27 February.