Himachal likely to receive heavy rain, snow on Feb 18-19; orange warning issued

Shimla, Feb 17 (PTI) Parts of Himachal Pradesh are likely to witness heavy rain, snow and thunderstorm accompanied with hail and gusty winds on Sunday and Monday, according to the weather office.

On Saturday, the weather remained dry and day temperatures rose marginally with Una recording a high of 27 degrees Celsius.

The MeT office issued a yellow warning of heavy to very heavy rain/snow and thunderstorm accompanied with hail, gusty winds and lighting at isolated places on February 18 and 19.

It predicted heavy rain/snow and thunderstorm accompanied by gusty wind and lighting at isolated places on February 20 and 21, and heavy rains at most places in lower hills and rains and snow in mid and higher hills as a fresh western disturbance is likely to affect the western Himalayan region from Saturday night.

The maximum temperature stayed four to 10 degrees above normal in most places, and Kalpa and Keylong in tribal Kinnaur and Lahaul and Spiti districts recorded a high of 16 degrees and 4 degrees, 10 and six degrees above normal.

The day temperature breached the 22-degree mark at most places and Bilaspur and Sundernagar recorded a high of 26 degrees and 24.9 degrees, followed by Kangra 23.6 degrees, Mandi 23.4 degrees and Solan 23 degrees Celsius.

The state received 68.2 mm average rains during winters from January 1 to February 17 against normal rainfall of 142.2 mm, a deficit of 52 per cent.

All the districts barring Mandi experienced deficit rains ranging between 15 per cent (Hamirpur) and 83 per cent (Lahaul and Spiti).

The minimum temperatures also stayed above normal and Keylong was the coldest in the region with a low of minus 3.7 degrees -- 6.3 degrees above normal -- followed by Kusumseri minus 3.2 degrees, Sumdo minus 2.3 degrees and Kalpa 0.8 degree. PTI