Unseasonal snowfall in Darjeeling

Darjeeling/Calcutta, April 6 (PTI): Darjeeling experienced unseasonal snowfall and a hailstorm today as heavy rains lashed the metropolis and adjoining districts leaving one person dead and disrupting early morning train services. Darjeeling town, the Queen of the Hills, received 1 inch to 1.5 inch snowfall between 11.15 am and 11.45 am after a hailstorm and rains in the last three days, district administration sources said. Considered a very unusual phenomenon for April, the snowfall whitened rooftops and streets and delighted tourists. The weatherman said in Calcutta that more snow was expected. A two hour downpour accompanied by hail lashed the metropolis in the early morning flooding low-lying areas of the metropolis and affecting train services. The weatherman said that Alipore received 63.7 mm and Dumdum 46.2 mm of rain. The rainfall was the result of a cyclonic trough extending from Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh and West Bengal to Bangladesh. Train services in Sealdah south section and Howrah divisions were affected for some time due to the rain, but no train was cancelled, railway sources said. A 22 year old truck driver was killed when struck by the thunder bolt as he was trying to fix a polythene sheet on the deck of the vehicle to escape from the showers at Shalimar rail yard in Howrah district. His partly burnt body was recovered from the truck,the police said. Heavy rains also lashed neighbouring Howrah, Hooghly and North and South 24 Parganas districts. The met office forecast rainfall for the next 24 hours.