Cold wave grips higher reaches of Himachal

Intense cold wave conditions today gripped the tribal areas and other higher reaches of Himachal Pradesh following fresh snowfall while the mid and lower hills received widespread rains, accompanied by icy winds.
The fresh snow fall and rains led to significant fall in mercury which stayed below freezing point in the high altitude tribal areas and mountain ranges, the MeT department said.
The higher reaches in tribal districts of Lahaul and Spiti and Kinnaur, Dhauladhar and Churdhar ranges and Rohtang, Saach, Kunzam, Chansel and Baralacha passes had another spell of moderate snowfall.
State capital Shimla and surrounding resorts of Kufri, Fagu and Narkanda were lashed by sharp intermittent showers, accompanied by strong velocity icy winds, bringing down the mercury by 2 to 6 degrees.

The minimum temperature dipped to 7.1 deg in Shimla while the maximum day temperature dropped to 17.1 deg C.
High altitude tribal areas groaned under piercing cold wave conditions with mercury staying 5 to 10 deg below freezing point while Kalpa, Keylong and Manali recorded a low of 1.2 deg, 2.8 deg and 4.2 deg C.

Bhuntar, Solan and Sundernagar recorded minimum temperatures at 7.8 deg, 9 deg and 9.3 deg, followed by Nahan 9.7 deg, Palampur 10.5 deg, Una 13.5 deg and Dharamsala 16.6 deg C.
Tissa in Chamba was wettest in the region with 26 mm of rains till this morning while Saluni and Chamba recorded 10 mm and 8 mm of rains, followed by Dalhousie 7 mm, Kahu, Kasauli, Bangana and Una 5 mm each and Bharmaur, Kheri, Dehra Gopipur and Mashobra 4 mm.

Una was hottest during the day with maximum temperature at 28 deg while Sundernagar and Dharamsala recorded a high of 26.1 deg and 25.2 deg followed by Bhuntar 24.2 deg, Nahan 20.2 deg, Solan 19 deg and Kalpa 14.4 deg C.
The local MeT office has predicted rains and snow at isolated places in mid and higher hills in next two days.