SHIMLA
With the fresh snowfall in higher reaches and rain in middle areas , the hopes of a white Christmas have started floating among the local as well as tourist . Rain and cold wave has forced people to wrap up in a heavy woolens in Shimla and plummeting morning and evening temperatures have raised the expectations of witnessing the snowfall on the December 25.
From 1971 to 1991, Shimla had witnessed nine times snowfall while in 1989 snowfall was observed for five continuous days during Xmas . However in 1995 Christmas day had 10cm snow and in 1991 there was snowfall for two days starting December 25. Due to the human inference with nature as well as global warming Shimla was not witnessing snowfall in the past few years on the occasion , which also shrink the number of tourist towards Himachal Pradesh mainly Shimla district .
According to the state Meteorological department, “ The snowfall entirely dependent on the Western Disturbances, which, luckily, have already been given biting moments to the region”
Shimla veteran Kunti Devi , who is in his late 70s, said, ” the heaviest snowfall I witnesses in my lifetime is in 1945 when Shimla got buries under 7-8 feet of snow. Those were the days when there used to be heavy snowfall but since past few years there had been hardly any snowfall .”
According Meteorological department , rainfall and snowfall is likely to occur at isolated places in the middle and high hill on December 1 while from December 2 , the sky will remain clear.
According to the meteorological department , Keylong the district headquarter of Lahual and Spiti,Kullu- Rohtang Pass ,Narkanda has experienced snowfall. Besides this, snowflakes has been witnessed in kufri of Shimla.
Significant rainfall recorded from other parts of the state include Shimla , Sundernagar in Mandi , Hamirpur ,Kahu, Jogindernagar and Kandaghat each.
