Saturday, 24 April 2021 | PNS | New Tehri
The people are baffled by the twist in the weather of the mountainous regions as they have been forced to take out their woollen clothes. The month of April is usually warm and heralds the summer season but rains for the past few days coupled with snow in the higher reaches have drastically altered the weather.
The valleys of Gangotri, Kedarnath and Badrinath are covered in white sheets of snow even as people experience winter during the summer. Meteorologists state that the cold has returned due to snowfall and hail. The higher reaches of Himalaya in Uttarakhand have been experiencing snowfall for at least the past two days.
According to the Agriculture Meteorological Department of Ranichauri campus of the VCSG Uttarakhand University of Horticulture and Forestry, the maximum temperature here on April 19 was 24 degrees Celsius and the minimum was seven degrees Celsius. This was followed by the maximum temperature of 19.6 degrees Celsius and minimum 8.2 degrees Celsius on April 20. The mercury then plunged to a maximum of 18.6 degrees Celsius and a minimum of 5.9 degrees Celsius on April 21. The maximum of April 22 dropped to 17.4 degrees Celsius and the minimum mercury dropped sharply to one degree Celsius. The maximum temperature was recorded at 8.1 degrees Celsius and minimum at 3.3 degrees Celsius on Friday, April 23. The fruits have been damaged due to rain as well as hailstorm.
Shiv Singh Tadial of Maun village said that the hailstorm has caused the flowers of plum and peaches to fall. This will affect production in future. On the other hand the fresh rainfall has given a new lease of life to the water bodies. Prakash Negi of Ranichauri Agriculture Meteorological Department said that the temperature has dropped drastically due to hailstorm. Hailstorm has caused falling of peach, plum, apricot flowers in many areas.
