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Snow in hills, shiver in plains

Chandigarh, December 16
People in and around Chandigarh and parts of Punjab and Haryana shivered today as the day temperatures plummeted by two degrees under an overcast sky, coupled with the north westerlies blowing across from the freshly snow-clad higher reaches in Jammu and Kashmir and the adjoining areas of Himachal Pradesh.

Mercury in the city today dipped to 20.8 °C, two degrees below normal and against yesterday’s 25.2 °C. The night temperature, however, shot to 11.2 °C, three degrees above normal.

Weathermen attributed the change in weather conditions to the western disturbances (WD) moving over north Pakistan and the adjoining J and K. The WD, they said, were likely to cause rain or snow in parts of J and K and HP. The weather in Punjab, Haryana and elsewhere in the region would remain mainly dry, they added.

Light-to-moderate snow on higher reaches since last evening made people shiver under intense conditions. However, the night temperatures in and around Srinagar rose by four degrees above normal to 2.1 °C after dipping to five degrees below freezing point last week. Jammu was hotter by six degrees, reporting the low of 14.4 °C.

Ambala and Hisar in Haryana reported the lows of 9 °C and 10.2 °C, three and two degrees above normal, respectively. Night was hotter in Delhi which reported the low of 8.3 °C one degree above normal. Amritsar (8.8 °C), Ludhiana (10.9 °C) and Patiala (10.5 °C) reported four to five degrees above normal temperatures during the night.

Parts of HP, a Shimla report said, were in the grip of a cold wave with a drop in a day temperatures. Though the night temperature in and Shimla was six degrees above normal at 10 °C, people during the day braved biting cold as mercury plummeted to 7 °C with the pale sun playing hide and seek. Bhuntar, Dharamsala, Sundernagar, Solan and Kalpa, among other stations, reported lows higher by one to three degrees above normal temperatures. A piercing cold wave swept across the tribal districts of Lahaul-Spiti and Kinnaur and Pangi valley in Chamba district. UNI