Today is the 4th day of shocking tragedy for Uttarakhand leaving a trail of destruction and seizing many innocent lives. A score of them still trapped under precarious conditions and battling for life. War footing operations undertaken tenaciously are raising hopes of saving virtuous lives sooner than later.
Weather plays a very significant role more often than not under such taxing scenarios. It holds the key and plays a decisive role, particularly in the fragile and tricky terrain of the traumatic site. All the agencies engaged in rescue and relief are operating under torturous conditions in the remote areas and they terribly need the weather on their side to reach success. And the good news that all the land and air operations can go through unimpeded.
A western disturbance has moved past Uttarakhand in the past 24 hours. Higher and mid reaches did encounter a brief spell of weather. The weather system has since moved towards Western Himalayas paving way for good weather conditions lasting for one week or even more. Days will be sunny and warm with a moderate breeze. The workforce has to fight the cold conditions during the night operations. The minimum temperature has been < 5°C at most places across the state including Chamoli, Pithoragarh, Mukteshwar, Joshimath and Rudraprayag. Few places are nearly freezing and the windy conditions are dropping the chill factor during the night. Day temperature is expected to be more than 20°C and may even reach 24-25°C at few places like Pithoragarh, Chamoli, Tehri and Mukteshwar. Extreme cold day, as well as cold wave conditions, are not expected for the next few days.