Snowfall at high altitude areas and continuous rain in mid and lower parts of Himachal hit the normal life as the temperature got a dip. It has been raining for past two days and is predicted to rain for another two days in Himachal Pradesh. While lower parts received widespread rains, high-altitude areas, mountain ranges and passes experienced heavy snowfall.
Tribal areas of Lahaul-Spiti and Pangi in Chamba were cut off from rest of the state as road links to many places in the interior area were blocked due to heavy snowfall.
Tourist places like Narkanda, Sangla, Solang and some other places had the first snowfall of the season. The Dhauladhar ranges in Kangra, Churdhar range in Sirmaur, Rohtang Pass, Saach Pass, Chanshal and Kunzam passes had heavy snowfall for the second day today.
The Rohtang Pass (13,050 ft) received 50 cm of fresh snow while Koksar, Solang and Mari had 38 cm of snow, followed by Kothi (37 cm), Keylong (31 cm), Kalpa (17 cm).
Heavy rains lashed the lower hills and Gaggal, Dalhousie, Dharamshala and Dehra Gopipur received 114 mm, 112 mm, 111 mm and 96 mm rains in less than 10 hours, causing a sharp fall in day temperatures which dropped by five to six notches, aggravating the coldwave conditions.
The rain and snowfall disrupted normal life all over the state and about 20 roads including link roads in Rohru and Rampur areas in Shimla district got closed.
The minimum temperatures dropped marginally. Keylong, Kalpa and Manali recorded a minimum temperature of minus 2.4 degree, minus 0.2 degree and 0.6 degree respectively, followed by Shimla 4.0 degree, Dharamsala and Una 5.2 degrees Celsius.
The rain has brought big relief to the farmers of the state as it is the time to sow wheat and other Rabi crops
