Heavy snowfall likely in Himachal Pradesh
The India Meteorological Department (IMD) has forecast widespread rainfall accompanied by cold wave-like conditions across entire northwest India next week.
"Two western disturbances in quick succession would be affecting northwest India during the next one week. The first would be quite intense and favourably located to cause severe weather across northwest India from January 19 to 22 with peak intensity on January 21," an IMD release said.
Heavy snowfall and rain are also likely in high and mid hills of Himachal Pradesh on January 21 and 22, even as the minimum temperature in most parts of the state improved marginally on Saturday. According to Shimla meteorological centre director Manmohan Singh, Lahaul and Spiti's administrative centre Keylong continued to be the coldest in the state at minus 5.2 degrees Celsius.
The minimum temperature in Kinnaur's Kalpa was minus 1.8 degrees Celsius, he said. Shimla, Dalhousie and Kufri recorded minimum temperatures of 7.7 degrees Celsius, 5.7 degrees Celsius and 3.2 degrees Celsius, respectively.
Snowfall and light rain will occur at isolated places in Himachal Pradesh on Saturday due to a western disturbance which is affecting northwest India, he said.
Thereafter, distribution and intensity of the rain and snowfall will increase and widespread rain and snowfall will occur in Himachal Pradesh from Sunday to Thursday, he added.
Meanwhile, flight operations in Kashmir were disrupted following fresh snowfall in most parts of the state, officials said on Saturday.
While there was light snowfall in the plains of Kashmir, the higher reaches received moderate snow, a meteorological department official said.
The snowfall led to cancellation of flights and delays at the Srinagar airport.
"Few flights have been cancelled today because of bad weather, while most others have been delayed," an Airports Authority of India (AAI) official said, adding the operations were expected to return to normal later in the day with some improvement in the weather.
The meteorological department has forecast widespread rain and snow over the state with heavy falls at isolated places from Saturday till Monday.
According to the MeT official, Srinagar recorded a minimum temperature of minus 2.0 degrees Celsius Friday night, lower than minus 1.3 degrees Celsius on the previous night.
The ski resort of Gulmarg recorded a low of minus 7.0 degrees Celsius, while the tourist resort of Pahalgam in south Kashmir recorded a low of minus 4.4 degrees Celsius.
The minimum temperatures in Leh, in the frontier Ladakh region, and Drass were recorded at minus 9.2 degrees Celsius and minus 16.2 degrees Celsius, respectively.
The coldest place recorded in Jammu and Kashmir, Kargil witnessed a minimum temperature of minus 18.9 degrees Celsius.
The IMD in its forecast said plains areas, especially Punjab, Haryana, Chandigarh, Delhi and Uttar Pradesh, would also receive heavy rain with gusty winds on January 21-22.
Thereafter, the second western disturbance, would affect the western Himalayan region and the plains of northwest India from January 24 to 26, though it would be of lesser intensity, according to the IMD release.
A drop in the maximum temperatures by 3-4 degrees Celsius over northwest India from January 21 is also expected due to change in weather.
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