Heavy rains lash parts of Himachal, further drop in day temperature

Moderate to heavy rains occurred at several places of Himachal Pradesh on Thursday leading to a drop in day temperatures.

Several areas in the mid hills received intermittent heavy rains and the prevailing foggy condition disrupted traffic movement.

Dalhousie in Chamba district received 90 mm of rains, followed by Kangra (84), Sarkaghat (70), Aghar (68), Mashobra (59), Pandoh and Dharamshala (56 each), Hamirpurand Renuka (49 each), Mehre andSangrah (48 each), Bilaspur (46), Sundernagar (45) and Sunnibhajji (40 mm).

State capital Shimla received 40 mm rains till the evening while Manali and Una recorded 27 mm rains each, followed by Sundernagar and Karsog (26 each), Ghamroor (25), Paonta and Bharwara (24 each), Chelsea and Gohar (23 each)and Bhuntar (21 mm).

The rain deficit during the current monsoon season improved marginally to 18% as the state has received an average rainfall of 435 mm as against the normal mark of532.2.

The rain deficit ranged between 10 and 82% in five out of the 12 districts.

Keylong was the coldest in the region with a minimum temperature of 14 degrees Celsius, followed by Kalpa (14.2), Manali (14.4), Dharamshala (16), Shimla (16.6), Palampur (19), Nahan (19.8), Solan (20), Sundernagar (21.4) and Una (26 degrees Celsius).

The day temperatures droppedby two to three degrees with Una recording a high of 29 degrees Celsius, followed by Bhuntar (27.5), Nahan (27.2), Dharamshala(26.8), Sundernagar (26.1), Solan (23.5),Manali (22), and Shimla (20.2 degrees Celsius).

The MeT department has forecast rains or thundershowers at many places in the state for the next six days.