Kathmandu: Nepal bid adieu to the dying year and readied to usher in 2011 with the first flurry of snowfall in its mountainous north Friday with the authorities shutting down several remote airports.
The domestic airports in Dolakha, Mugu, Humla, Mustang and Jumla districts were closed on Friday as freezing westerly winds from India brought snowfall to the northern districts with temperatures plummeting to below freezing point.
The Met Office in Kathmandu said the lowest temperature had been recorded in Jomsom, the main town in Mustang adjoining the Tibetan border, where the mercury had fallen to minus 7 degree C.
In Jumla, temperatures had fallen to minus 5 degrees Celsius while in Dolakha, it was minus 3.5 degrees Celsius.
Between four inches to 1 foot of snowfall was reported in the northernmost districts while in the capital, the minimum temperature was 2 degrees Celsius.
While the sunny Terai plains adjoining India recorded a minimum temperature of 8-10 degrees Celsius, the thick fogs that plague the plains in winter had yet not arrived from India and Afghanistan.
The Met Office said the cold would continue till the second week of January.
In 1976-77, Kathmandu had recorded its lowest temperature at minus 2 degrees Celsius. This year, Christmas Day had been the coldest in the capital so far when the minimum temperature was 0.8 degrees Celsius.
IANS
