Mercury soars in Himachal Pradesh

The lower hills of Himachal Pradesh reeled under blistering heat today as mercury surged by three to four degrees, with Una in Shivalik hills experiencing the hottest day of the season at 43 degrees Celsius, five degrees above normal.
Maximum temperatures rose two to three degrees above normal, as state capital Shimla also experienced the hottest day with a high of 29.8 degrees, three notches above normal.
Sundernagar in Mandi district recorded a maximum temperature of 39.4 degrees, followed by Nahan with 37.1 degrees, Bhuntar at 35.2 degrees, Solan 34.2 degrees and 31.6 degrees Celsius at Dharamsala.
Kalpa in tribal Kinnaur district recorded a high of 24.4 degrees while Manali recorded maximum temperature of 25 degree Celsius.

Minimum temperatures also remained above normal. Nahan was hottest during night with minimum temperature at 27.2 degree, while Shimla and Una recorded a low of 18.8 degree and 20.0 degree Celsius, 5.8 degrees and 7.0 degrees above normal respectively.
Manali was coldest in the region with minimum temperatures at 4.0 degrees, followed by Keylong 4.8 degrees, Kalpa 9.4 degrees, Bhuntar 12.0 degrees, Sundernagar 16.0 degrees, Dharamsala 16.2 degrees, Solan 17.2 degrees, Palampur 18.5 degrees Celsius.
Though sudden rise in temperature has triggered forest fires across the state in lower and mid hills, the local MeT department's prediction of rains or thundershowers or snow at isolated places in lower, mid and higher hills for next five days should bring relief to the area.