The northern hills across three states have been a experiencing a prolonged wet spell which started on January 20, peaked on January 21 with fairly moderate to heavy spells at many places on January 22. The strong Western Disturbance which gave such heavy rains over the hills and plains is now moving eastward.
Today, i.e. on January 23, the hills across three states of Jammu and Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand would receive light to moderate rains/snow over the mid and higher reaches. Tomorow onward, the weather activity would be on a receding note. Around January 25, there will be another Western Disturbance which would be feeble in nature, giving some wet spells again. For coming four days, these three hilly states would continue to receive light to moderate weather activity.
As per Skymet Weather, this weather system has given record snowfall over the trio of hilly states.
Places like Qazigund, Banihal, Uttarkashi, Joshimath, Mussoorie, Kullu, Manali, Shimla, Dharamshala, Keylong, Kalpa have recorded 24.5 mm, 35 mm, 37 mm, 29 mm, 42 mm, 31 mm, 30 mm, 53 mm, 33 mm and 40 mm, respectively.
Due to such heavy rain and snow, the highways have been blocked and the day temperatures have also dipped below normal by 6°C to 15°C. For the first time in this season, the day temperature in Shimla has dipped to 1.9°C with minimums settling around 0.7°C. The difference between maximum and minimum seems to be a marginal one. Yesterday also, Shimla was all decked up with heavy clouds with good heavy rain and snow. Places like Bilaspur, Kullu and Manali all recorded their day temperatures 11°C, 9°C and 8°C below normal. So, basically the day temperatures have been hovering around freezing points across these three hilly states.
The last two days have been helpful in wiping out the deficiencies over these regions and the areas which were largely deficit have now come near to normal.
Due to such heavy rain and snow, everything has come to a standstill. It is all white in white over these areas. Such a scenario, leads to heavy accumulation of snow over the tops and especially over the slopes, giving birth to landslides and avalanches. Landslides happen on a small scale in comparison to the avalanches, its reach is restricted to limited pockets only. The Bannihal Pass is shut from past three days because of such heavy precipitation over Kashmir. Landslides have hit the highway in the Jawahar Tunnel area at some places in the Ramban district, including Digdol, Panthal, Magarkote and Khoni Nallah.
Image Credit: Scroll
Please Note: Any information picked from here must be attributed to skymetweather.com