IndiaStand

‘Laila’ to intensify further The cyclonic storm ‘Laila’ over the southwest and adjoining west-central Bay moved northwestwards and lay centred about 190 km east-northeast of Chennai, 320 km south-southwest of Machilipatnam and 480 km south-southwest of Visakhapatnam.
A weather office bulletin said the system was likely to intensify further and move in a northwesterly to northerly direction and cross Andhra Pradesh coast between Nellore and Kakinada, close to Machilipatnam by tomorrow morning.
Under its influence, coastal Andhra Pradesh was likely to experience widespread rainfall with scattered heavy to very heavy rains and isolated extremely heavy falls (25 cms or more) during the next 36 hours.
Maximum Gale force wind with speed reaching 115-125 kmph was likely along and off Andhra Pradesh coast at the time of landfall.
Squally winds with speed reaching 50-60 kmph was likely along and off north Tamil Nadu coast during the next 24 hours.
Sea condition would be very high to phenomenal along and off Andhra Pradesh coast and very rough along and off north Tamil Nadu coast during the next 36 hours.
Fishermen were advised not to venture into the sea off these coasts.
Storm surge of 1.5 to 2 metres above the astronomical tide was likely to inundate the coastal areas of Guntur, Krishna and West and East Godavari districts of Andhra Pradesh at the time of landfall.

45 cm snowfall in KinnaurFresh spell of snowfall on high reaches and rain on downstream areas of Himachal Pradesh today brought down the mercury substantially, which receded by four to five degrees below normal, Met sources said here.
Chitkul, the last bordering village on Sino-India frontier in Kinnaur registered about 45 cm snowfall and 13050 ft. high Rohtang Pass recorded about 6 cm snowfall.
The 350 km-long Hindustan-Tibet highway got blocked beyond Recong-Peo. Snowfall on Kunzam and Baralacha pass dented the effort to open Manali-Leh Road beyond Keylong which was scheduled to open by May 23.
The traffic on Manali-Keylong road remained unaffected by the snow.
Reports of snowfall were also received from high reaches of Kangra, Chamba and Kullu districts.
Except Nahan and Solan, all parts of the state received widespread rainfall overnight, which continued till this morning.
Kalpa in Kinnuar district registered highest 39 millimeter rainfall, Saloni in Chamba 33mm, Udaipur in Lahaul and Spiti 29 mm, Sangla in Kinnuar 28 mm, Keylong in Lahaul Spiti 27 mm Rampur in Shimla 23mm, Sunni and Bajji of Shimla 14 mm.
In Kangra district Palampur, Baijnath, Dharamshala and in Mandi Jogindennagar, Jubbal and Rohru of Shimla recorded 12 mm rainfall each.
Bhuntar in Kullu and Mandi received 10 mm rain each, Seobagh in Kullu 9mm, Kahu in Hamirpur and Banjar in Kullu 8mm each, Pandoh in Mandi 7mm, Shimla and Baldwara of Mandi -6mm each.
Tourist destinations of Manali, Dharamshala, Shimla, Chail and Kufri, Narkanda and Dalhouise also recorded rainfall which delighted the thousand of tourists lodging here for summer season as temperature sharply come down in the state.
Keylong was coldest in the state with minimum of 3.1 degree Celsius, four degree below normal, Shimla 13 degrees down by -0.7 degree, Sundernagar 17.1 degrees, Bhuntar 14 degrees, Kalpa 4.6 degrees down by one degree and Dharamshala 16.7 degrees was down by 2.6 degree.
The Minimum of Una was 19.2 degrees, Mandi 12 degrees, below normal by five degree, Nahan 26.7 degrees and Solan was 17.4 degrees.
However, the Met office forecast mainly dry weather in Himachal Pradesh in coming 24 hrs.

Chitrakoot records 50 deg C; 10 monkeys dieBlistering weather has not only hit human beings but had also affected animals as ten monkeys lost their lives as mercury crossed 50 degrees Celsius, the maximum in the season, in this religious city of Uttar Pradesh.
Monkeys, roaming here and there, are a common sight for the devotees at Kamadgiri Parikrama.
Ten monkeys succumbed to intensive heat today.
Also, four women fainted while performing ‘parikrama’ as the temperature touched 50 degrees in the district.
Bharat Das, a saint at Chitrakoot, said a number of monkeys and birds have died due to severe heat in the past few days.
He said devotees were facing a number of problems owing to the adverse weather.
Meanwhile, the death of monkeys and inconvenience to devotees have created a furore among the saints, who were blaming the district administration for its failure to arrange potable and cold drinking water.
Chitrakoot Dham, located at the Uttar Pradesh-Madhya Pradesh border, is considered a holy place in the Hindu mythology.