The people of Uttarakhand reeling under the protracted heat spell might receive a respite as the Meteorological centre has forecast gusty thunder squalls with a speed of 60-70 km per hour lashing several parts of the State during the next 24 hours. However, the woes of Dehradun residents continued on Friday with the mercury soaring up to 36.5 degree Celsius. Chamoli, Rudraprayag and Uttarkashi districts experienced light rain on Friday, helping the mercury dip a bit. Dehradun is likely to experience light to moderate rainfall on Saturday, said Meteorological centre director Bikram Singh. He said that rainy spell might continue for the next few days under the influence of the Western disturbances approaching the state. On Friday, while 40 mm rainfall was reported from Chamoli the figure was 10 mm from Karnprayag and Kaptkot.
Despite the Met officials having forecast rainfall in Dehradun on Friday, the climate remained dry on the day with the continuance of the hot and humid conditions troubling the people. The roads and the markets remained deserted throughout the day. The students suffered the most as they came out of the schools on their way back home when the sun was at its scorching worst. While the highest maximum temperature 37.6°C was recorded at Jolly grant the lowest minimum temperature 15.1°C was recorded at Mukteshwar.
Singh said that while light to moderate rain/thunder shower might lash some places in Uttarakhand on Saturday thunder shower is likely to occur at isolated places especially in higher reaches of Uttarakhand for at least three days from April 23.
Another spell of rain under Western disturbances has been forecast on April 26. The weather forecast for Saturday in Dehradun ismainly clear to partly cloudy sky with possibility of rain/thunder showers lashing some areas. The maximum and minimum temperatures are likely to be around 34 degree Celsius and 22 degree Celsius respectively in the city on Saturday.
While the maximum settled at 36.5ºC (three degree above the normal) and the minimum at 23.4ºC (five degree above the normal) in Dehradun it was 28.9ºC (seven degree above the normal) and 15.1ºC (four degree below the normal) in Mukteshwar and 35.4ºC (one degree above normal) and 25.9ºC (nine degree above the normal) in Pantnagar on Friday. In Tehri district, maximum temperature was reported as 26.9 degree Celsius while the minimum was 16.6 degree Celsius on Friday.