Mercury up in Himachal, sunny conditions prevail

The hills of Himachal Pradesh on Saturday saw mercury rising with bright sunshine. The Met Office has forecast bright sunny days with prevailing northwesterly winds till January 27.

"There are chances of rainfall and snowfall in the state on January 28-29," a weatherman told IANS.

He said what are called western disturbances - storm systems originating from the Mediterranean Sea and moving across the Afghanistan-Pakistan region into northern India - would be active again in the region on January 28.

Keylong, headquarters of Lahaul and Spiti, was the coldest in the state recording a minimum temperature of 9.8 degrees Celsius below the freezing point.

Shimla recorded the night temperature at 2.4 degrees, a rise from Friday's 1.7 degrees. The day's temperature on Saturday was 14.1 degrees.

Kalpa in Kinnaur district recorded a low of minus 2.4 degrees and the maximum was 11.7 degrees.

The minimum was minus 3.4 degrees in the picturesque tourist resort of Manali while Dharamsala was relatively warm at five degrees minimum and 12.2 degrees maximum.