The officers whether in the police or the forest department looked elated on Wednesday after it rained and helped douse the forest fires ravaging the mountainous parts of the State. More would follow in the coming days if the weathermen are to be believed.
Met director Bikram Singh said on Wednesday that rainfall has been reported from across the State over the past 24 hours by Wednesday evening. “This must have brought huge relief for all in the State. We have learnt that around 80 percent of the blazes have been put out. Rains would continue and we are sure that the rest would be doused soon,” he said. He said that around 5 mm rainfall is enough to douse the forest fire.
Singh said that the maximum temperature is expected to come down by two degree Celsius as an impact of the rains as compared to Tuesday.
light to moderate rain/thunderstorm has been forecast at many places in Uttarakhand. Snowfall is also likely to occur at places with height of 4000 metres and above on Thursday.
The weather forecast for Dehradun on Thursday is partly to generally cloudy sky. light rain/thunderstorm is likely to occur at many places. The maximum and minimum temperatures are likely to be around 34ºC and 20ºC respectively in Dehradun on Thursday.
However, the volume of the rains in the plain districts, especially in Haridwar, Dehradun and Udham Singh Nagar, is not much. Dehradun residents faced hot and humid conditions on Wednesday too.
Singh informed that the maximum and minimum temperatures were recorded at 36.3ºC (two degree above normal) and 20.9ºC (one degree above normal) in Dehradun while it was 27.6ºC (two degree above normal) and 14.0ºC (two degree above normal) in Tehri, 25.0ºC (two degree above normal) and 13.0ºC (two degree above normal) in Mukteshwar and 35.9ºC and 23.2 ºC (four degree above normal) in Pantnagar on Wednesday.
He further said that light rainfall has been reported from the mountainous parts of the State. By 8.30 am on Wednesday, 7.3 mm rainfall has been reported in Dehradun, trace in Mussoorie, 5 mm in Purola, 14 mm in Chamoli, 3 mm in Barkot, 9 mm in Joshimath, 11 mm in Munsiyari and 5 mm in Champawat.
The weather forecast on May 6 is light to moderate rain/thunderstorm at many places in Uttarakhand. Snowfall is also likely to occur at places with height of 4000 metres and above on Thursday and Friday. The Met office has forecast light rain/thunderstorm at isolated places especially in Uttarkashi, Chamoli, Rudraprayag and Pithoragarh districts on May 7 and May 8.