HP lashed by thunderstorm, snow in higher reaches

The mid hills of Himachal Pradesh and the state capital were hit by severe squall followed by rain and sleet while the higher reaches and tribal areas had another spell of moderate to heavy snowfall.
A squall hit Shimla, reducing the visibility to zero in the capital city and forcing people to switch on lights during the day. Vehicles moved at snail's pace with headlights on and people were forced to take shelter as high velocity winds lashed the region.
The tribal areas of Lahaul and Spiti and Kinnaur, Dhauladhar mountain ranges in Kangra, Churdhar in Sirmaur, Dodra Kwar and key tourist resort of Manali had moderate to heavy snowfall and Rohtang and Kunzam passes recorded 80 cm of fresh snow.

Keylong and Kalpa recorded 50 cm and 40 cm of fresh snow till this evening while Manali recorded 10 cm of snow.
Koksar, Mari and adjoining areas are experiencing intermittent snowfall paralysing normal life in tribal valleys and disrupting power supply.
The Lahaul and Spiti district administration has cautioned the people from venturing out in view of impending avalanche threat.

The mid and lower hills were lashed by rains and thunderstorm and Manali was wettest in the region with 41 mm of rains.
Saluni and Seobagh had 40 mm of rains, followed by Jogindernagar 38 mm, Dalhousie 36 mm, Hamirpur and Dharamsala 34 mm, Gaggal 33 mm, Bhuntar 29 mm, Sundernagar 27 mm, Una 24 mm, Bangana and Bajura 22 mm, Bilaspur 21 mm, Jubbarhatti 17 mm, Kufri 15 mm and Shimla 12 mm.

Una was hottest in the region with maximum temperature at 30.6 deg, while Nahan in Shivalik foot hills recorded a high of 26.4 deg, followed by Dharamsala 20.6 deg, Shimla 15.6 deg, Sundernagar 14.7 deg, Bhuntar 9.5 deg, a drop of 5 to 8 degrees since yesterday.
Cold wave conditions revived in the high hills and minimum temperature dropped to 8 deg in Manali while Keylong and Kalpa recorded a low of 9 deg and 0.2 deg.
Saluni recorded minimum temperature at 4.5 deg followed by Shimla 6.7 deg, Bhuntar 8.2 deg, Sundernagar and Solan 11.1 deg, Dharamsala 11.6 deg, Nahan 12.1 deg and Una 14.7 deg C.

The local MeT office has predicted dry weather in the state for next two days and rains at isolated places from march 27 onwards.