Much to the cheer of the tourists and the local residents who missed the snowfall on Christmas and New Year, people at Shimla woke up on Saturday morning to witness a thick blanket of snow on their rooftops in the first spell of snowfall of 2014.
Temperature dipped in Shimla on the intervening night of Friday and Saturday and mild snowfall started after 10 pm and it continued till morning. Night snowfall was second in the season as the first was recorded on December 22, last year.
According to Meteorological Centre, Shimla, higher and middle altitude areas of the State received moderate snowfall which disrupted electricity supply and traffic flow. Bharmaur of Chamba district remained coldest location in the State with minimum temperature reaching minus 13.1°C and received 10 centimetres of snow while Keylong in lahaul and Spiti received 6 cm, Kalpa of Kinnaur district and Theog of Shimla district received 4 cm each snowfall.
Manmohan Singh, director of Meteorological Centre, Shimla said that the forecast was of dry and sunny weather but cyclonic fresh western disturbance winds changed the weather conditions in high and middle altitude areas.
Now the centre has predicted rains and snow for next 72 hours. “There may be snowfall on higher and middle reaches while rains on lower hills,” he added.
The minimum temperature at Keylong and Kalpa recorded for past 24 hours was minus 8.7°C and minus 4.4°C respectively.
Manali received two centimetres of snow while the minimum temperature was recorded at minus 1.6°C and maximum at 5.8°C.
On Saturday evening thick fog enveloped Shimla and minimum temperature dropped to 0.1°C, while maximum temperature was recorded at 8.9°C. Narkanda a famous tourist spot received nearly 6 to 7 inches of snow, disrupting electricity supply in surrounding area.
However, tourists marched to Kufri and Narkanda to enjoy skiing. A local travel agent Rajeev Chaudhary said enquiries are being made by several tourists from Chandigarh, Haryana and Punjab after news of snowfall was on air.
“Earlier tourists were rushing to Srinagar and Manali for snow, but now bookings have started for Shimla,” said Chaudhary.