The cold conditions that appeared to be getting moderate of late became tougher here on Friday, with heavy rainfall accompanied by lightning, thunder and hailstorms since Thursday night.
Snowfall witnessed in higher reaches only added to the decreasing temperature in different parts of the region on Friday.
Amid rainy conditions disruption in electricity supply to different parts of Haldwani and elsewhere in the region for about 12 hours since Thursday night caused inconvenience to the citizens. As forecast by the Met office, cloudy conditions coupled with occasional light rain showers started gaining momentum from Thursday night hitting normal life in different parts of Kumaon region.
Although people have welcomed these developments in atmospheric conditions, many of them restricted their movements as a precautionary measure to protect themselves from the cold.
Whereas the weather remained almost normal during the daytime on the occasion of Mahashivratri on Thursday, heavy rainfall accompanied by lightning and thunder hit normal life here since Thursday night though the weather improved a bit on Friday afternoon. Meanwhile, as has been reported, the deteriorating weather coupled with
occasional fog also disrupted transport services at many places in the plains and
mountainous regions.
The power supply also remained disrupted here for about 12 hours. The electricity supply that went off on Thursday night around 10.30 pm and could be restored in different parts of Haldwani and elsewhere in the region only around Friday noon.
According to the figures provided by the Uttarakhand Power Corporation limited (UPCl), whereas the gross availability of power in Uttarakhand is about 27 million unit (mu) per day i.e. about 8 mu per day from domestic sources, about 12 mu per day from Central pool and rest about 7 mu per day from other sources, the demand for power has constantly been around 34 mu per day in the hill State.
Apart from decline in the power generation from indigenous sources of late i.e. from an average of 15 mu per day reported in October to around 8 mu per day reported so far this month as the UPCl figures suggest, local technical faults are also reported to be one of the main reasons leading to disruption in power supply.