Cold wave tightens grip as mercury dips in Himachal

The piercing cold wave conditions further aggravated in higher hills and valleys of Himachal Pradesh as minimum temperatures dipped by few notches and hovered around freezing point.
Fog engulfed towns along the Ravi, Beas and Sutlej rivers while thick ground frost occurred in mid and higher hills in the morning hours, affecting vehicular traffic.
Keylong and Kalpa in tribal districts of Lahual and Spiti and Kinnaur recorded minimum temperature at minus 6 degree Celsius and minus 1.8 deg C while high altitude tribal areas reeled under shivering cold wave conditions with mercury ranging between minus 8 to minus 13 deg C.

The key tourist resort of Manali and Bhuntar recorded minimum temperatures at minus 1.4 deg and 1.9 deg, 3 deg below normal while Solan, Sundernagar and Chamba recorded a low of 3 deg, 3.6 deg and 4.6 deg respectively, 3 deg below normal.
Palampur, Una and Shimla recorded minimum temperature at 6.4 deg while Nahan recorded a low of 8.2 deg, 3.5 deg below normal.
However, the maximum day temperatures remained close to normal and was hottest with a high of 26 deg, followed by Sundernagar 25.4, Dharamsala 24.2, Solan and Bhuntar 23 deg, Nahan 22.4 deg, Shimla 17 deg and Kalpa 14 deg C.

The local MeT office has predicted dry weather in the region over next five days with no improvement in minimum temperatures.