North reels under heatwave, snowfall in Amarnath

New Delhi, June 12 (UNI) Temperatures in Rajasthan hovered between 41 to 45 degrees Celsius as the heatwave continued unabated.

Trinamool Congress supremo Mamata Banerjee too experienced the heatwave as she fell ill during a protest demonstration at the Kolkata central business area in Esplanade.

Specialist doctors were consulted for her check-up. Sweltering heat was probably the reason of the illness, party leader Madan Mitra said.

However, people in the upper reaches of the Kashmir valley and Drass in Ladakh region experienced fresh snowfall today forcing the Amarnath pilgrimage to remain suspended from both Baltal and Pahalgam routes for the second day.

The 300-km-long Srinagar-Jammu national highway was through for traffic.All incoming and outgoing flights operated normally despite rains. However, the 434-km-long Srinagar-Leh highway was closed due to "dry day" today.

A report said upper reaches on both sides of Zojila-Drass road also experienced about one feet of fresh snowfall. However, there were rains in Drass, the second coldest place in the world after Siberia.

The upper reaches in the Kashmir valley, including holy Amarnath cave shrine, Pisso Top, Mahaguns, Sheshnag, Chandanwari and Pahalgam also experienced snowfall and heavy rains forcing authorities to suspend the pilgrimage.

About 18 inches of snow was recorded at Mahagunas, six inches of snowfall was received at the holy cave shrine, making it extremely difficult for the pilgrims to undertake the holy journey from the traditional Pahalgam route.

The national capital recorded 41.3 degrees Celsius.

Ganganagar recorded 45 degree Celsius yesterday while Churu and Sikar were blazing at 44 degrees.

Sporadic rainfall in parts of Manipur brought down the mercury.

The maximum temparature was recorded at 24 degrees Celsius while the minimum was at 19.9 degrees Celcius.

In the regions where the southwest monsoon is yet to set in day temperatures were markedly above normal in east Uttar Pradesh, were appreciably above normal in some parts of Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, north Rajasthan and were above normal in Uttaranchal, west Uttar Pradesh, Punjab, east Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Saurashtra and Vidarbha.

Rain or thundershowers are likely to occur at most places in Arunachal Pradesh, Assam and Meghalaya, Nagaland, Manipur, Mizoram, Tripura and at many places in Sub-Himalayan West Bengal and Sikkim.

Rain or thundershowers are also likely to occur at a few places in Gangetic West Bengal, Konkan and Goa, coastal Karnataka, Kerala, Andaman and Nicobar, Lakshadweep and at isolated places in Orissa, Jharkhand, Bihar, east Madhya Pradesh, Vidarbha, Chhattisgarh, Gujarat.

Rain or thundershowers have also occurred at a few places in coastal Karnataka and at isolated places in Jammu and Kashmir, east Madhya Pradesh, Vidarbha, Chattisgarh, Gujarat Region, Konkan and Goa, Madhya Maharashtra, Telangana, Rayalaseema.

UNI TEAM AK BD1914