High altitude regions of Mugu and Humla districts witnessed the first snowfall of the season on Monday.

The surrounding hills and meadows of Rara, Murma, Talcha, Bam, Dolfu, Chhayanath among others were blanketed with snow.

Many locals of Mugu expressed their surprise at the sudden snowfall since the weather had been relatively sunny throughout the weekend. Rajendra Bahadur Shahi of Jadepani in Soru Rural Municipality Ward no. 2, Mugu, said, “The weather suddenly changed and it started snowing. We had three-inch deep snow on Monday.”

Monday brought in snowfall in almost every area of upper Manang too, according to the Chief District Officer Dhruba Giri. "Some settlements in Manang Ngisyang Rural Municipality and Narpa Bhumi Rural Municipality are covered in two-inch deep snow," Giri told the Post on Monday. “The temperature had dropped to -8 degree celsius on Monday evening.”

According to Tsering Lopsang Gurung of Manang village in Manang Ngisyang Rural Municipality, snowfall arrived at least two weeks early this year compared to last year. “The previous year, it had begun snowing only in December but this year we had sporadic light snowfall in the first week of November,” he said. “And now it has begun snowing in earnest here.”

The mountainous region above 3,000 metres had experienced light snowfall on November 2 but it had not snowed in the settlements in the lower altitude areas until Monday.