Himachal Pradesh’s capital-Shimla- on Thursday received the highest snowfall on a single day in the month of February in the past nine years. This was the season's first snowfall spell in Shimla town.
Other tourist hotspots in the state including Kufri, Manali, Dalhousie and Narkanda also received fresh snowfall in the last 24 hours. Shimla town has recorded 50 cm snowfall till the evening, which is the highest monthly snowfall in the month of February in the past nine years. Earlier it was in February 2002, when Shimla had recorded 54.1 cm of snowfall on February 12, said Manmohan Singh, Director, Shimla Met Centre. He said that in the past 30 years, the heaviest snowfall in 24 hours in Shimla occurred in the year 1990 i.e. 151.3cm and the second highest was in the year 2007 i.e 113 cm.
He said that most parts of Shimla district including Shimla city, Kharapathar, Narkanda, Kufri and its upper parts, several places in Mandi, Kullu, Kangra, Solan, Sirmaur, Chamba and Kangra districts and most places in Lahaul-Spiti and Kinnaur districts received light to heavy snowfall till evening.
The snowfall is likely to continue in Shimla, Sirmaur, Kinnaur, and parts of Lahaul-Spiti, Mandi, Kullu, Chamba and Kangra till Thursday night, Singh said.
According to the Shimla Met Centre, Solan received 47 mm rainfall, Dharamshala 2.2 mm, Nahan 3.7 mm, Bhuntar 4 mm and Kalpa 2.8 mm rainfall. The temperature in various parts of the state also declined by several notches and a number of roads were blocked due to snow.
The tribal Lahaul and Spiti’s administrative centre Keylong continued to be the coldest place in the state at minus 6.3 degrees Celsius, Kalpa recorded a low of minus 4.6 degrees Celsius, one degree below normal.
The minimum temperatures in Kufri and Dalhousie settled at minus 1.1 and minus 1.2 degrees Celsius respectively. Shimla registered a low of 1.8 degrees Celsius, one degree below normal.