Manali gets snowfall, more in store

Popular hill station Manali in Himachal Pradesh Saturday got a fresh blanket of snow, giving the resort and its neighbouring areas a more picturesque look.

Manali residents shivered as icy winds brought down the minimum temperature to minus 1 degree Celsius.

However, state capital Shimla, which saw just snowflakes, received 10.3 mm of rain overnight.

The city saw a low of 3.2 degrees Celsius, whereas the maximum settled at eight degrees Celsius, an official at the local Met office told IANS.

Resorts near Shimla like Kufri and Narkanda have been receiving intermittent snowfall.

"Heavy rainfall and snowfall may occur in the next 24 hours at isolated places in Shimla, Lahaul-Spiti, Kinnaur districts and parts of Kullu and Chamba districts," a meteorological office statement said.

It said the maximum temperature across the state declined by three to four degrees, while the minimum rose by two to three degrees.

Rain lashed the lower areas of the state such as Dharamsala, Palampur, Solan, Nahan, Bilaspur, Una, Hamirpur and Mandi, bringing down the temperature.

Kalpa in Kinnaur district, which saw 9.2 cm snow, recorded a low of minus 1.2 degrees Celsius while the temperature was minus 7.6 degrees Celsius in Keylong with 6 cm of snow.

Dhundi, some 20 km from Manali, received 50 cm of snow.

Dharamsala, which recorded 4.2 mm rain, registered a low of 4.4 degrees Celsius and a high of 13.2 degrees.