Cold wave intensifies; snowfall rain bring down temperatures

Tribune News Service

Dehradun, December 15

Snowfall in the higher reaches and rain in low- lying areas of Uttarakhand brought down temperatures, intensifying the cold wave conditions here. However, Dehradun and adjoining areas witnessed sunny weather today morning for nearly two hours but residents experienced bone-chilling cold due to sudden dip in the mercury.

The higher altitudes of Garhwal division which include Badrinath, Kedarnath, Gangotri, Yamunotri, Hemkund Sahib, Chakrata and Auli received winter’s fresh snowfall while, Pithoragarh, some parts of Nainital, Munsyari and Dharchula were covered with snow.

Some low-lying areas, including state capital Dehradun received sporadic rainfall which further decreased the temperature.

Speaking to The Tribune, State Meteorological Centre Director Anand Sharma said the state will receive less rainfall from tomorrow onwards. He said that the weather will clear from Tuesday onwards.

He said barring some regions in Uttarkashi and Chamoli district, other parts of the state will receive light rainfall.

Meanwhile, snowfall paralysed normal life in many parts of Uttarakhand with hill areas of the state being the major sufferers. The vehicular flow of traffic was disrupted in the mountainous areas of the state.

The hoteliers in Mussoorie, Dhanolti, Nainital, Auli, Uttarkashi, Harshil, Khirsu etc cheered up with the timely snowfall in the hope that tourists will come in large numbers this weekend.

The vehicular flow of traffic in the higher areas of the state was disrupted after rain lashed Uttarakhand. Among the worst affected areas were Uttarkashi, Harshil, Gopeshwar, Chopta, Ukhimath, Joshimath, Auli etc.

The department concerned struggled hard to clear the debris from the road in order to ensure smooth flow of traffic in higher areas of the state but sporadic rain and low temperature hampered its efforts.

Power cuts in several areas of Doon

Several colonies of Dehradun faced erratic power supply after the city experienced sporadic rain today. The field staff of Uttarakhand Power Corporation Limited (UPCL) struggled hard to resume electricity supply in the affected colonies of Dehradun.

Department officials claimed that strict instructions were already issued to the staff for taking effective measures for rectifying technical snags and further blamed rough weather behind the delay in removing errors on transmission lines.

The testing of lines was continued till today evening in order to ensure disruption free electricity supply to consumers. The supply of electricity was resumed in most of areas except in those areas where field staff were struggling to rectify technical snags.

Speaking to The Tribune, Madhusudan told that it had become difficult for UPCL for maintaining disruption-free power supply to residents due to scarcity of electricity as power generation in hydropower projects was badly affected after a dip in mercury in the state.

He said that field staff were strictly instructed to rectify technical snags immediately in order to avoid inconvenience to residents.

Among the worst affected areas in terms of power cuts were Defence Colony, Haridwar road, Mohkampur, Patel Nagar, DL road, Subhash road, Rajpur road etc. The rural areas of Dehradun district witnessed power cuts for prolonged hours.