Shimla: Heavy snowfall and rains lashed many parts of the state, bringing down temperatures and affecting normal life in Himachal Pradesh on Saturday.
Tribal Kinnaur district, upper Shimla region and upper areas of Kullu including Manali experienced heaviest snowfall of the season.
Avalanche struck at four places at Bhagat Nallah, Tinku Nallah, Tangi Nallah and Ralli Nallah in Kinnaur district affecting traffic, but there was no loss of life or damage to property.
Avalanche threat loomed over high altitude tribal areas.
Hindustan-Tibet National Highway was blocked beyond Shimla while the Kiratpur -Manali NH was opened upto Patlikul.
Rampur-bound vehicles were diverted via Basantpur and Kingal while efforts were on to open the highway up to Manali.
Rohtang, Chansel and Kunzam passes were covered under 150 cm to 200 cm of snow.
Rohroo, Jubbal and Hatkoti were cut off due to 100 cm of snow on Shimla-Rohroo road at Khara-Patthar while Chopal, Nerwa and Haripur Dhar were also inaccessible by road.
Most of the link roads in Kinnaur tribal district were closed either due to snow or landslides and efforts were on to open all the roads.
Hundreds of vehicles were stranded at various places and snow clearing machinery and earth removers have been positioned at landslide prone locations, Kinnaur Deputy Commissioner, JM Pathania said.
Moorang, Sangla, Chitkul, Narkanda, Fagu and Manali received 150 cm, 120 cm, 110 cm, 100 cm, 90 cm, and 110 cm of snow respectively during the past 70 hours as intermittent snowfall continued.
Shimla received 25 cm of fresh snow and the entire town
was covered under thick blanket of snow.
Kalpa received 55 cm of snow followed by Manali 45 cm, Jubbal 35cm, Bijahi 33 cm, Sarahan 28 cm, Chhatarai 27 cm, Shimla 25 cm, Bharmaur 20 cm, Saluni 18 cm and Keylong 5 cm.
Barog, Chail and Kasauli also experienced mild snowfall while lowers areas of Dhauladhar, Bhuntar and Kullu also experienced another spell of light snowfall.
Rains lashed mid and lower hills, the highest of which was recorded in Kheri 63 mm, followed by Kangra 52 mm, Renuka 50 mm, Sangrah 49 mm, Chamba 44 mm, Amb 42 mm, Bhuntar 40 mm, Gohar 39 mm, Nagrota Suriyan and Dharamsala 38 mm, Nahan 34 mm, Palampur 33 mm, Hamirpur 31 mm, Nurpur and Naina Devi 28 mm, Solan 28 mm, Sundernagar 27 mm, Bilaspur 17 mm and Una 5 mm.
Lowest minimum temperature was recorded in Bharmaur -12.1 degrees celsius while in other places like Keylong with minus 6.8, Kalpa minus 4.8, Manali minus 1.2 and Shimla minus 0.3 degrees Celsius, temperature remained below freezing point.
The maximum temperatures dropped by eight to thirteen degrees below normal and Una recorded a high of 15.4 degrees Celsius, followed by Dharamsala 13.4, Nahan 10.7, Sundernagar 7.4, Solan 6.5, Bhunter 4.6, Shimla 2.5 and Kalpa minus 1.2 degrees Celsius.
The local MeT office predicted rains or snow at isolated places in mid and higher hills during the next 24 hours.
