Snowfall sets foot in Himachal, Uttarakhand; North India braces for cold winter

Many parts of Himachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand received fresh snowfall on Monday as weather conditions started changing across north India preparing it for a cold winter.

Many people have been stranded in Himachal’s Lahaul and Spiti district due to inclement weather as roads remained blocked.

Meanwhile, the famous Char Dham Yatra near Kedarnath in Uttarakhand continued amid clearance of layers of snow, the Devasthanam Management Board informed. The snowfall started in the high peaks of Gangotri and Yamunotri Dham as the temperatures dropped in the low-lying areas of Uttarkashi district.

The Manali-Leh highway was closed for normal traffic after fresh snow at Baralacha pass in Himachal Pradesh’s Lahaul and Spiti district. At least 80 passengers were stranded in the area on Sunday.

A layer of snow covered the Dhauladhar mountains visible from Dharamshala, Himachal Pradesh, as the region received the season’s first snowfall.

However, the cold weather conditions have not been kind to everyone. Three trekkers out of a group of 13, died following heavy snowfall in Himachal Pradesh’s Kinnaur district, the Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP) informed on Monday. The trekkers started their climb from Rohru to Burua village in Kinnaur district on October 17 and were stranded at Burua Kanda due to snowfall.

The extreme weather events amid a delayed monsoon withdrawal over the past few weeks have raised an alarm for exceptionally cold conditions across the northern belt of India. Experts have warned that the mercury will fall as low as 3 degrees celsius due to the La Nina effect.

The India Meteorological Department (IMD) has already predicted heavy rainfall, snowfall with thunderstorms, gusty winds, and lightning at isolated places over Jammu & Kashmir, Ladakh, Gilgit-Baltistan, Muzaffarabad, Himachal Pradesh, and Punjab this week.