Snowfall in hills of Uttarakhand brings temperatures down    

Dehradun, Dec 11: The famous Himalayan shrines of Uttarakhand were covered by layers of snow today as snowfall hit higher reaches of the mountains even as those in the plains including the state capital were lashed by intermittent rain causing the temperatures to drop by several degrees.

The famous shrines of Badrinath, Kedarnath, Hemkund Sahib and Nanda Devi received snow while many places in the lower areas including Nainital, Mussoorie and Dehradun were lashed by intermittent overnight rain bringing down the temperature considerably across the state, officials here said.

The MeT department said with intermittent overnight showers still continuing, Dehradun is likely to record a drop of four to five degrees in day temperature in comparison to yesterday's 23.5 degrees Celsius.

People were seen sitting around bonfires at several places in the city, offices recorded thin attendance and the traffic on the roads was sparse.

The meteorological department had predicted inclement weather in Uttarakhand for 36 hours from the evening of December 10 with high altitude areas above 3,000 metres likely to be hit even by snow avalanches besides snowfall and hailstorms.

The Disaster Management Department had also alerted the administration in all districts especially Chamoli, Rudraprayag, Uttarkashi and Pithoragarh in view of the MeT department forecast.

PTI