Winter intensifies in northern plains, hills

New Delhi: Northern plains received widespread rains while hills witnessed snowfall on Friday, throwing life out of gear in some places in the higher reaches and cutting off the Kashmir Valley from the rest of the country, with Delhi recording highest 24-hour December precipitation in 22 years.

The season's first snowfall in Shimla, Nainital, and Mussoorie cheered up locals and tourists.

Uttarakhand's popular hill stations got wrapped in a blanket of snow. The snowfall also continued in the upper reaches of the state, including Kedarnath, Badrinath, Auli, Yamunotri, and Gangotri.

With places like Rudraprayag, Dehradun, Tehri, Pauri, Uttarkashi, Almora, Bagehswar and Pithoragarh being continuously lashed by rains for the last a few days, the whole state is in the grip of cold wave.

The cold wave and rains have forced authorities to keep schools in most parts of the hill state closed. The state transport authorities on Friday said various stretches of national and state highways have been blocked.

The famous Vaishno Devi shrine atop Trikuta hills experienced the season's first snowfall as moderate to heavy snow and rains lashed wide parts of Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh for the second consecutive day on Friday disrupting normal life, officials said.