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Shimla has season's first snowfall

Staff Correspondent

Town wrapped in a white blanket

SHIMLA: The picturesque hill town of Shimla and its suburbs had the season's first snowfall on Monday much to the delight of tourists and locals. It was after a gap of nine years that the town had a good snowfall much before the predicted dates of Christmas and New Year. It had snowed earlier in 1997 when the hill town turned totally white in the first week of December.

After a bright sunny morning on Monday the weather suddenly turned clouded in the afternoon followed by sleet and then large snowflakes. Within hours the town got wrapped in a white blanket and tourists and school children were seen playing with snow. The Hindustan-Tibet Road was blocked at a number of places by evening and the adjacent suburbs of Kufri, Fagu, Narkanda, Naldehra and Sarahan also experienced moderate to heavy snowfall. Shimla town, which had had intermittent rain and snowfall since Sunday night, recorded a sharp fall in the night temperature, which stood at 0.7 degree Celsius as against 6.2 degrees recorded on Sunday.

By evening Shimla had recorded over 20 cm of snowfall, followed by 25 cm at Kufri, 30 cm at Fagu, and about 40 cm at Narkanda.

Dalhousie and Khajjiar in Chamba district recorded about 5 cm of snow each last night and official sources said several lower areas of the district had also received the season's first snowfall. The higher reaches of Pangi and Bharmaur were covered under a thick blanket of snow and Manimahesh Lake in Chamba district had frozen.

The higher reaches of the tribal areas, mountain passes and other higher areas had also experienced snowfall on Sunday night, intensifying the cold wave conditions in the State.

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Shimla has season's first snowfall

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