Hail hits Darjeeling, snow higher up - It’s April but tourists enjoy snowfall in Sandakphu

April 6: The upper reaches of Darjeeling got a snowfall at midnight, rare at this time of the year, while the hill town itself was covered with a white blanket of hailstones after a storm this morning.

In Darjeeling, the skies were clear in the morning and a snow-draped Sandakphu-Phalut could be easily seen. But from around 11am dark clouds gathered over the town, followed by a hailstorm and heavy rain.

Pema Dhondup Sherpa, the owner of a hotel on the Nepal side in Sandakhphu, confirmed that the entire area was covered in snow. “It did snow here for about four hours from midnight yesterday. The snow was one-and-a-half-inch thick. There are a lot of tourists and everyone is enjoying their stay,” said Sherpa over the phone from Sandakphu at 12,000 feet.

Bharat Prakash Rai, the secretary of the Federation of Societies of Environmental Protection, an NGO which works in the Sanadkphu-Singalila area, also confirmed the snowfall.

“I had called up my colleagues in the region and they, too, said it did snow about one-and-a-half inches at night. They told me that the snowfall was a bit heavy in Phalut at night but in the morning there was only a hailstorm,” said Rai.

The in-charge of Sikkim Meteorological Centre, G.N. Raha, said he had not received any report of snowfall from Sandakphu.

But he did not rule out the chances of snow in the higher altitudes of sub-Himalayan Bengal around this time of the year as a western disturbance was currently crossing over to eastern part of the country from Jammu and Kashmir.

“A western disturbance had hit Jammu and Kashmir around three days back which is now crossing over to the eastern part of the country. The cyclonic circulation over Bangladesh and Bengal is also an effect of the western disturbance. Although I have not received any reports of snow from Sandakphu, the region could have received light snowfall as an effect of the western disturbance,” Raha said.

Western disturbance is a phenomenon in which clouds bearing moisture form over the Mediterranean Sea and then move east to reach India. They cause thundershowers in low-lying areas and snowfall in higher altitudes.

Subir Sarkar, the in-charge of the weather centre at North Bengal University, agreed.

“The western disturbance had brought snowfall to higher altitude areas of Jammu and Kashmir and Himachal Pradesh. It is likely that Sandakphu may have received light snowfall,” he said.

In Darjeeling, the residents could neither recall such a heavy hailstorm nor snow in Sandakphu-Phalut in April.

“I had only heard of a snowfall in Sandapkhu in late February or sometimes in early March,” said Dipesh Tamang, a resident of the hill town. Mahesh Thapa, another resident of the hill town, said the hailstones were not very big but many. “They covered the roads, rooftops and pavements for almost half an hour before melting.”

The Darjeeling tea industry had a lucky escape as the hailstorm did not destroy the first flush crop.

“Since the hailstorm were confined to a limited area, garden crop was not affected. According to information that I have, only Orange Valley tea garden experienced hailstorm for about 7-8 minutes. We are happy that the region experienced the much needed rain,” said Sandeep Mukherjee, the principal adviser to the Darjeeling Tea Association.

The rain that accompanied the half-an-hour hailstorm, however, made life difficult for the people of the town as drains overflowed into the roads.

The ground floor of a four-storied building near Motor Stand was completely submerged by the overflowing water from a nearby jhora.

Amar Singh Rai, the chairperson of the Darjeeling municipality, said the civic body was caught unawares by the sudden downpour.

“We had started cleaning one jhora a week every Thursday since last week in preparation for the monsoon. The rain was unexpected and this is why most of the drains overflowed,” said Rai.(The Telegraph)