Cold grips Himachal with snow, rain

The cold again gripped Himachal Pradesh on Sunday with the state's higher reaches experiencing snow.

However, low and mid hills saw widespread rainfall, a weather official said.

He said the chill would extend over the weekend as snow and thundershowers would continue until Monday.

The minimum temperature in Shimla was recorded at 5.8 degrees Celsius and Manali was at 1.8 degrees.

Shimla received 5.4 mm of rain, while Manali got 19.6 mm of rain, said the Met office.

Kalpa, some 250 km from here which experienced 1 mm of rain, saw a minimum temperature of 1.2 degree Celsius, while it was 10.4 degrees in Dharamsala, which had 7.2 mm of rain.

Keylong, the headquarters of Lahaul-Spiti, experienced 4 cm of snow and was the coldest in the state with a low of 0.6 degree Celsius.

Picturesque tourist resort Dalhousie in Chamba district was cold at 3.4 degrees Celsius with rainfall of 13 mm.