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Char Dham shrines, hilly areas get fresh snowfall in Uttarakhand
The India Meteorological Department this afternoon issued a weather warning for Friday and advised government authorities to make necessary arrangements for road clearances.
Bringing temperatures down across the state, fresh snowfall was reported from the Char Dham shrines and higher reaches of Uttarakhand on Thursday.
Districts in the plains too witnessed continuous rainfall throughout the day on Thursday.
The India Meteorological Department this afternoon issued a weather warning for Friday and advised government authorities to make necessary arrangements for road clearances as slippery road condition was possible due to snowfall and low temperatures.
The MeT department predicted that on Friday, light to moderate rainfall or thunderstorm or snowfall is likely to occur at a few places in the hills and at isolated places in the plains of Uttarakhand with snowfall likely to occur at places with a height of 1800 metres and above.
On Thursday, popular tourist destinations of Dhanaulti, Surkhanda Temple and Buraskhanda received the first spell of snow of the year resulting in a rush of tourists.
The farmers were also delighted to receive rain and snow after a dry spell of one month.
Kuldeep Negi, a farmer from Dhanaulti said, “We were waiting with our saplings of Apple and Kiwi for the temperatures to come down. The fresh spell of rain and snow has provided us the window to plant our saplings so that they can grow fast in the conducive weather.”
Ram Singh Khanduri, a local resident of Dhanaulti said, “Around 3-4 inches of snow has accumulated in potato farms and higher reaches of Dhanaulti.”
Higher reaches like Nag Tibba peak also witnessed snowfall on Thursday afternoon while Mussoorie witnessed a brief spell of snow, but it did not last long much to the disappointment of tourists.
Rajan Mehra, a tourist from Delhi said, “We were hoping that the rain spell around noon will lead to snow in Mussoorie but it did not last long. We have decided to visit Dhanaulti so that we can enjoy snowfall there.”
In Uttarkashi district, Harsil Valley was covered in a white sheet of snow on Thursday as snowfall continued in the valley since Wednesday evening.
There has been continuous snowfall in eight villages of Harsil Valley including Gangotri and Yamunotri shrines leading to roads being completely covered in snow. Till Thursday afternoon about one foot of snow had accumulated in the valley.
