Chandigarh, December 16
People in and around Amritsar, besides Jammu and Kashmir and Himachal Pradesh, shivered under intense cold wave conditions as icy winds blew from the freshly snow-clad mountains.
A pale sunshine, through an overcast sky, however, brought some relief to the people in the north-west region during the day.
The Jammu-Srinagar highway reopened this afternoon, even as several roads, including the Hindustan-Tibet road in Himachal Pradesh, stayed blocked for the second day today.
Amritsar turned coldest in the plains of the north-west region with the minimum temperature plummeting by 2 degrees to 3°C. The historic city recorded 10.8 mm of rainfall till this morning. Patiala and the Nangal Dam area reported having received 5.2 mm and 2.8 mm of rainfall, respectively.
Chandigarh and adjoining areas in Haryana and Punjab had recorded 13 mm of rainfall. Ambala (12.8 mm), Hisar (1.00 mm), Karnal (9.7 mm) and Rohtak (2.1 mm) were among the other Haryana stations reporting rain.
The National Capital Territory of Delhi received 28 mm of rainfall while its Palam area received 15.5 mm of rainfall.
The Jawahar tunnel, linking the Jammu region with the Kashmir valley through the Banihal, received fresh spells of snow. The Banihal top recorded 53 cm of fresh snowfall out of a total of 148
cm. Gulmarg reported 0.5 cm fresh snowfall in a total of 50 cm standing snow. Dras had a total standing snow of 20 cm. Pahalgam and the area leading to Amarnath, Sonmarg and Yusmarg experienced renewed spells of snow today.
Srinagar turned cold again, with the low dipping to 0.4°C, two degrees below normal, following an 8.4 mm precipitation of snow and rain. Jammu recorded 19.7 mm of rainfall.
In Shimla, the minimum dipped to 3.2°C, one degree below normal following 46.2 mm of precipitation. Bhang Manali recorded 6 cm of snowfall and 11 mm of rainfall. Dhundi, Patsio and Solang Nullah recorded 51 cm,30 cm, 55 cm of snowfall, respectively, till this morning.
Bhuntar (29.1 mm), Dharamsala (6.6 mm), Sundernagar (4.5 mm), Nahan (8.00 mm), Pandoh (4.00 mm), Rampur (28.2 mm), Guler (3.5 mm), Nadau(0.5 mm), Sujanpur Thira (3.00 mm), RL -1700 (.5 mm), Bathin (02.00 mm), Kalo (4.6 mm), Kahu (8.5 mm), Nagrota Surian (5.7 mm) and Ghamrur (02.00 mm) were among the Himachal stations reporting rains. —
UNI
