Heavy rains lash North India

New Delhi, Feb 28: Heavy rains drenched most parts of North India today with snowfall and hailstorms reported from a few places including in Himachal Pradesh, pushing the mercury down at a time when cold was expected to abate.

In Delhi, heavy rains brought the temperature down with maximum settling four degrees below normal. According to Met officials, 9.7 mm of rainfall was recorded between 8.30 AM and 5.30 PM, while rainfall recorded from yesterday till 8.30 AM was 9.4 mm.

The day temperature was registered at 21.3 degrees Celsius which was four notches below normal while the minimum temperature was recorded at 12 degrees Celsius.

The piercing cold wave sweeping most parts of Himachal Pradesh further tightened its grip as stormy conditions persisted in the the state. Higher reaches in Shimla, Kinnaur along with Dhauladhar ranges in Kangra and Churdhar ranges in Sirmaur district received heavy snowfall, while rains and sleet lashed Shimla and surrounding areas of Kufri, Fagu and Narkanda.

Vehicular traffic on Hindustan-Tibet National Highway was disrupted due to a thick blanket of snow between Wildflower Hall and Narkanda.

Kalpa and Bharmaur in tribal areas recorded 15 cms and 10 cms of snow respectively while Kufri, Narkanda and Bijahi received 12 cms of fresh snow each.

The state capital Shimla received 12 mm of rains and recorded a minimum of 2.5 degrees Celsius while Chhatrari was wettest in the state as it received 22 mm of rainfall.

Bharmaur was coldest in the region with minimum temperature recorded at minus 9.0 degrees Celsius. Meanwhile, an upper air cyclonic system due to ongoing western disturbance caused precipitation and hailstorms in Jaipur, Kota, Bikaner, Churu, Jhunjhunu, Ganganagar, and Jaisalmer districts of Rajasthan during the last 24 hours.

Jaipur residents woke up to a thick fog followed by heavy rains, while Churu recorded maximum rainfall of 3 cms. In Uttar Pradesh, the downpour was recorded in centimetres with Thakurdwara reporting seven cms of rainfall.

Hailstorms too occurred at a few places in the state. Moderate to heavy rains lashed many parts of Haryana and a few places in Punjab as well. Chandigarh received 19.3 mm rain past midnight and the minimum temperature settled at 11.9 degree Celsius.

PTI