Other States - Himachal Pradesh   

Snowfall in hills, showers in the plains

CHANDIGARH: For parts of Himachal Pradesh and Jammu and Kashmir, it was a white welcome to the new year as they received snow while in the plains of Punjab and Haryana light showers brought an end to the prolonged dry spell and the mercury in the minimum went up by a few degrees providing much needed respite to the people from the cold conditions.

In Himachal Pradesh, state capital Shimla where thousands of tourists had thronged on the new year day expecting to see snow had something to cheer about today even though the town received only 5.2 cm of snow until 2:30 pm which did not accumulate much, the Met sources said.

Heavy snowfall

The higher reaches of HP were lashed by heavy snowfall. Kalpa (10 cm) and Bhang in Manali also got snow, even as weather forecast predicted another spell of heavy snow in the state over the next two days. Meanwhile, many places in Punjab and Haryana received their first spell of winter showers.

Chandigarh, Patiala and Ambala (traces), Karnal (2.4 mm) and Delhi (0.6 mm) were among other places in the plains to receive light rain, the Meteorological Department said here.

The MET said Srinagar received a moderate amount of rain (23.2 mm) overnight and the low touched 0.0 C, up two degrees.

The minimum temperatures in the region witnessed further increase since yesterday.

Chandigarh had an overcast sky since morning and the night temperature here rose to 9.6 degrees Celsius, which was three degrees above the normal range.

In Haryana, Ambala recorded a low of 11.4 C, up four degrees while the low at Karnal went up by five degrees at 11.8 C.

Delhi also saw the minimum rise by a few degrees to settle at 11 C, up four degrees, the Met here said. Most Punjab towns also got relief from piercing chill with increase in the minimum temperatures.

Amritsar was lashed by heavy rains during the day and the low was recorded two degrees above normal at 5.6 C.

The low at Patiala rose by four degrees at 11.5 C while Ludhiana registered a low of 8.4 C, which was up by two degrees over normal.

Shimla recorded a low of 4.7 C, up three degrees while Bhuntar (3.2 C) and Sundernagar (4.6 C) also recorded above normal minimums. The Met has forecast moderate to rather heavy rain for many places in Punjab and Haryana over the next two days.

Cold wave abates in U.P.

Cold wave conditions abated slightly in Uttar Pradesh today with the minimum temperature rising appreciably in different parts of the state.

The State remained mainly dry with minimum temperature rising in Agra, Jhansi, Allahabad, Kanpur, Lucknow and Bareilly during the past 24 hours, met office sources here said. - PTI

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Snowfall in hills, showers in the plains

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