The people of Dehradun and other parts of the plain districts, reeling under the protracted heat spell for the past few days, received a respite following rain and squall that lashed many places on Friday evening.
Strong winds followed by rainfall/hail lashed the city for around 20 minutes on Friday evening, resulting in the mercury dip by a few notches. More is in store as, according to the meteorological centre officials, the western disturbances is still active in the state.
Under its impact, rains and squalls might lash a large swathe of the State in the coming four days.
Meteorological centre director Bikram Singh said on Friday that light to moderate rainfall and squall has been reported from some places in Uttarakhand.
By 8.30 am on Friday, 30 mm rainfall each in Chamoli and Jakholi, 20 mm in Pithoragarh and 10 mm each in Didihat, Srinagar, Ukhimath and Garud has been recorded. landslides that occurred on several roads along the char dham yatra routes, mostly in Chamoli district, have reportedly blocked the passage of the pilgrimage.
In Dehradun, the long-awaited change in the climate following the rain/hail has brought cheer in the residents of the city. In several localities, the children and the youngsters were found getting drenched to cool off the heat spawned by scorching summer.
However, on the flip side, some trees being uprooted felling on the electricity wires snapped power supply at several places. Power officials claimed that they were working on a war footing to restore normalcy in the power supply in the affected areas.
Power disruption happened in several areas like Jogiwala, Harrawala, Badripur, Raipur, Rajpur, Dalanwala and Karanpur after gusty winds swept across them.
The weather forecast for Dehradun on Saturday is clear to partly cloudy sky. The maximum and minimum temperatures are likely to be around 37 ºC and 21ºC respectively in Dehradun on Saturday.
The highest maximum temperature 37.7°C was recorded at Jolly Grant while the lowest minimum temperature 12.0°C was recorded at Munsiyari.
The maximum temperature settled at 37.1ºC (three degree above the normal) while the minimum at 23.6ºC (three degree above the normal) in Dehradun. It was 26.6ºC (three degree above the normal) and 13.8ºC (two degree above the normal) in Mukteshwar and 37.4ºC (one degree above the normal) and 24.5ºC (four degree above the normal) in Pantnagar.
In Tehri district, maximum temperature was reported as 27.0 degree Celsius while the minimum was 13.2 degree Celsius on Friday.