Severe storm lashes parts of Himachal, one killed in Shimla

A storm today lashed several parts of Himachal Pradesh, killing one person in Shimla, uprooting trees and snapping overhead electricity and telephone cables.
The storm which lasted for about two hours, caused immense damage throwing normal life out of gear as roads were blocked by uprooted trees and power supply suspended in several areas due to snapped electricity cables.
A youth, Subhash Pal, died after an uprooted tree fell on him near Kennedy House in Shimla, sources said.
Several areas including Kunihar, Parwanoo, Kasauli and Solan plunged into darkness after supply had to be suspended in the Northern grid. The region remained without power for more than 20 hours and state capital Shimla witnessed power cuts for more than four hours.

Some vehicles were also damaged when trees fell on them as normal vehicular traffic was badly affected.
The higher reaches in tribal areas received moderate snowfall while mid and lower hills were lashed by the storm, accompanied by sharp showers as minimum temperature dropped to 5.3 deg C in Keylong in Lahaul and Spiti and 8 deg C at Kalpa in Kinnaur while Manali and Shimla recorded a low of 8.2 deg C and 10.6 deg C, 4 degrees below normal.
Sujanpur Tira received 39 mm of rains while Kasol and Naina Devi received 26 mm and 22 mm rains, followed by Kangra 21.2 mm, Bangana 20 mm, Nadaun 19 mm, Dalhousie 16 mm, Guler, Jhandutta and Bharmaur 14 mm and Dharamsala and Kandaghat 13 mm and 11 mm respectively, the local MeT office said.

There was no significant change in maximum temperature and Una was hottest with a high of 33 deg C while Sundernagar recorded maximum temperature of 29 deg C, followed by Nahan 27.5 deg C, Bhuntar 27.2 deg C, Solan 25.7 deg C and Shimla 22 deg C.