Heavy rains lash mid, lower hills of HP, mercury plummets

Heavy rains lashed several areas in mid and lower hills of Himachal Pradesh, causing a sharp fall in day temperatures.
Shimla was lashed by intermittent heavy rains and the town recorded 24 mm rains till this evening. The sky remained heavily overcast and thick fog engulfed the region, hampering vehicular movement.
The rains triggered landslides in interior areas but the entire major national and state highways were open, Public Works Department officials said.
Dharamsala and Palampur received 185 mm and 123 mm of rains followed by Jogindernagar and Paonta Sahib 92 mm, Aghar 87 mm, Nagrota Suriyan 76 mm, Baijnath 65 mm, Gaggal 48 mm, Nadaun 42 mm, Kheri 40 mm, Guler 37 mm, Hamirpur 18 mm, Saloni and Bhoranj 17 mm, Nahan 15 mm, Bangana 14 mm, Manali 12 mm andSarkaghat 10 mm.

The maximum temperature plummeted to 31.6 degrees at Una, a drop of three degrees while Sundernagar and Bhuntar recorded 31 degrees and 29.5 degrees, followed by Nahan 28.3 degrees, Dharamsala 27.4 degrees, Solan 27 degrees, Kalpa 23 degrees, Shimla 21.8 degrees and Manali 20.6 degrees Celsius.
There was a marginal fluctuation in minimum temperatures and Mashobra near Shimla was coldest with a low of 14.2 degrees while Kalpa, Dharamsala and Shimla recorded 15 degrees, 15.8 degree and 16.6 degree, followed by Manali 17.2 degrees, Keylong 17.4 degrees, Palampur 19.5 degrees, Nahan 20.1 degrees, Bhuntar 21.5 degrees, Solan 22 degrees, Sundernagar 22.8 degrees and Una 26.7 degrees Celsius.

The local MeT office has warned of heavy to very heavy rains at isolated places in mid hills tomorrow and heavy rains at isolated place across the state over next two days.
The MeT office has also predicted rains and thundershowers at many places in lower, mid and higher hills over the next six days from tomorrow onwards.