State capital Shimla and adjoining areas were lashed by a thunderstorm and squall resulting in the death of a man, while several parts of Himachal Pradesh received thundershowers, causing a sharp fall in the maximum day temperature.
Shimla was lashed by a hailstorm last night while a squall hit the town this afternoon, disrupting normal life and power supply.
The squall reduced visibility to a few yards. Vehicular traffic was badly hit and cars moved at a slow pace with headlights on during the day.
The squall, followed by sharp showers, uprooted trees, blew off roofs of kuchha houses and disrupted power supply.
A tree fell on a moving Tata Sumo in Nadaun area of Hamirpur district, killing one person on the spot, while the driver was seriously injured, police said.
Shimla received 8 mm of rain and the minimum temperature dropped to 12 degrees Celsius, six degrees below normal.
Una, which recorded the highest minimum temperature yesterday, was the wettest in the state with 26.2 mm of rain. The maximum temperature plummeted from 41.4 degrees Celsius yesterday to 37 degrees today.
Nahan recorded a maximum temperature of 32.3 degrees Celsius while Dharamsala, Sundernagar and Solan registered maximum temperatures of 30.8, 30. 5 and 30. 4 degrees Celsius respectively, followed by Shimla 27.1, Kalpa 24 and Manali 20, a drop of three to five degrees.
Palampur received 21 mm of rain while Solan, Sundernagar and Gohar had 20 mm of rain each, followed by Bijahi (16 mm), Joginder Nagar (14 mm), Sunnibhajji (13 mm), Pandoh (12 mm), Sarkaghat (11 mm), Mandi and Nahan (9 mm) and Kumarsain and Manali (7 mm).
The minimum temperatures also dropped by three to five degrees Celsius. Keylong and Manali recorded minimum temperatures of 5.6 and 6.2 degrees Celsius respectively, while Kalpa recorded a low of 10, followed by Palampur 10.5, Shimla 12.6, Bhuntar 13.5, Dharamsala 17.2, Nahan 20.1 and Una 23 degrees Celsius.
The local MeT office has forecast thundershowers and squall in mid and lower hills tomorrow and dry weather in the region from May 26 onwards.
