HP: Higher hills face intense cold, slight relief in lower

Tribal areas and other higher hills of Himachal Pradesh continued to reel under intense cold wave conditions while lower hills got some respite from cold as minimum temperatures rose marginally and stayed two to three degrees Celsius above normal.
The high altitude tribal areas and other higher hills recorded minimum temperatures between minus 12 and minus 18 degrees Celsius.
Keylong and Kalpa in tribal Lahaul and Spiti and Kinnaur districts shivered at minus 5.9 and minus 0.4 degree Celsius.
However, minimum temperatures in Solan rose to 6.0 degrees Celsius, followed by Manali 7.2, Shimla 7.7, Dharamsala 8.6, Palampur 9.0, Nahan 9.7 and Una 10.4 degrees Celsius.

The region had a dry day and barring Keylong which recorded 1cm snow there was no precipitation in the rest of the state but sky remained overcast and strong velocity winds swept the region.
There was no significant change in day temperatures and Una and Nahan were the hottest in the region with a maximum temperature of 20.0 degrees Celsius, followed by Nahan 18.9, Sundernagar 18.5, Shimla 15.6, Bhuntar 15.5 and Dharamsala 15. 4 degrees Celsius.
The local MeT office has predicted rain or snow at isolated places in higher hills tomorrow and dry weather in the region from February 9 to February 15.

The continued wet spell and low temperatures have created congenial conditions for outbreak of "yellow rust" disease in wheat and the farmers have been advised to take necessary precautionary measures and spray fungicides to save the crops, an official of state agriculture department said, adding that no case of yellow rust has been reported in the state so far.