IMD warns of heavy rain, snowfall in J-K, Ladakh, Himachal; issues ‘orange’ alert

The India Meteorological Department (IMD) on Saturday issued an "orange" alert, warning of heavy rainfall and subsequent snowfall in parts of Jammu and Kashmir, Ladakh and Himachal Pradesh over the next two to three days due to an intense western disturbance over the region.

States including Punjab, Uttarakhand, Haryana, Rajasthan and western parts of Uttar Pradesh and Delhi-NCR are also expected to experience showers accompanied with thunderstorms and lightning during this period under the influence of western disturbance.

Further, a cyclonic circulation has developed over central Pakistan and neighbouring regions which is likely to intensify with the possibility of merging with a fresh western disturbance on Sunday, the IMD said.

This is the first intense western disturbance of the season which will influence northwest and central India till next Tuesday, the weather agency said. Western disturbances are weather systems that originate in the Mediterranean region and bring unseasonal downpour to northwest India.

The weather agency further said that the dry northwesterly winds from the Himalayas are likely to prevail over northwestern region after the passage of the western disturbance, which would result in the fall in the temperature by 2 to 4 notches from October 17 over the region.

Earlier this week, the higher reaches in Himachal Pradesh’s Kinnaur, Lahaul and Spiti, Kullu, Mandi and Shimla districts received mild snowfall, while several areas in lower hills were lashed by severe thunderstorms accompanied by intense showers.

Meanwhile, monsoon has further withdrawn from most parts of Bihar; remaining parts of Jharkhand; some parts of Sub-Himalayan West Bengal; entire Gangetic West Bengal and Odisha; remaining parts of Chhattisgarh; some parts of Coastal Andhra Pradesh; most parts of Telangana; some parts of North Interior Karnataka on Friday.