Heavy Snowfall has been forecast at isolated places located at altitude of 3000 metres and above in Uttarkashi, Chamoli, Rudraprayag, Bageshwar and Pithoragarh districts of Uttarakhand during a 36-hour period starting from the evening of January 6. Chakrata, Mussoorie, Nainital and other places situated at altitude of 2000 metres and above have been forecast to experience rain/snowfall on Friday evening.
Meteorological centre director Bikram Singh said that a fresh western disturbance, lying over northeast Afghanistan and neighbourhood, might trigger the rain/snow. Under its influence, an induced upper air cyclonic circulation has formed over north Pakistan and west Rajasthan and extends upto 0.9 km above the mean sea level, he said.
The maximum temperature is expected to dip by around five degree while minimum temperature may rise by a few degrees on Friday and Saturday. The maximum and minimum temperatures are likely to be around 18ºC and 08ºC respectively in Dehradun on Friday, he added.
Singh said that mist/shallow fog had occurred at isolated places in the plains of Uttarakhand on Thursday. Very light to light rainfall was reported at many places in the state with 10 mm rainfall being reported in Munsiyari over the past 24 hours by Thursday evening.
The minimum temperatures remained above normal in the plains and normal in the mountains of Uttarakhand. lowest minimum temperature 1.4°C was recorded in Munsiyari on Thursday, he added.
Maximum and minimum temperatures were recorded at 23.2ºC (four degree above the normal) and 7.7ºC (two degree above the normal) in Dehradun respectively while it was 13.4ºC (two degree below the normal) and 1.7ºC (normal) in Mukteshwar and 23.2ºC (four degree above the normal) and 7.9ºC (two degree above the normal) in Pantnagar on Thursday.
He said that the forecast for Uttarakhand on Friday and Saturday is light to moderate rain/snowfall at many places in Uttarakhand. Snowfall is likely to occur at places at an altitude of 2000 metres and above. Moreover, light rain/snowfall has been forecast at a few places in Uttarakhand on January 8. Dry weather would likely to prevail in Uttarakhand on January 9, Singh said.