Mild snowfall in high altitude in HP, temp plummets

The high altitude tribal areas, mountain passes and key tourist resorts of Kufri, Fagu and Narkanda in Himachal Pradesh today received a mild snowfall even as the "White New Year" eluded Shimla, the queen of hills.
Thousands of tourists who had thronged Shimla and other tourist resorts to celebrate the New Year were disappointed in the morning as there was no snowfall in spite of heavily overcast sky.
No sooner did they receive the news of snowfall at Kufri, Fagu and Narkanda later in the afternoon, the thrilled tourists made a beeline to Kufri and Fagu to enjoy the snow.

The high altitude tribal areas of Lahaul and Spiti, Kinnaur, Pangi and Bharmaur and Rohtang, Kunzam, Saach and Chansel passes received mild snowfall, causing sharp fall in day temperatures.
Intense cold conditions gripped most parts of the state and strong velocity icy winds lashed Shimla and surrounding areas where the minimum temperature dropped to 4.6 degrees Celsius while the maximum temperature dropped by 1.5 degrees Celsius to stay at 14.1 degrees Celsius.
High altitude areas in Lahaul and Spiti, Kinnaur, Pangi and Bharmaur, Sprawling Dhauladhar ranges in Kangra, Churdhar peaks in Sirmaur and Rohtang and Kunzam and Chansel Passes experienced another spell of mild snowfall.

Keylong and Kalpa in tribal Lahaul and Spiti recorded minimum temperatures at minus 4.1 degrees Celsius, and minus 1.4 degrees Celsius, while Bhuntar and Solan recorded a low of 3.0 degrees Celsius and 3.6 degrees Celsius respectively, followed by Sundernagar 3.8 degrees Celsius, Palampur 5.5 degrees Celsius, Una 6.4 degrees Celsius, Dharamsala 8.8 degrees Celsius and Nahan 9.1 degrees Celsius.
Una was hottest during the day with maximum temperature at 25.2 degrees Celsius while Nahan and Solan recorded a high of 20.6 degrees Celsius and 19.0 degrees Celsius respectively, followed by Sundernagar 18.7 degrees Celsius, Bhuntar 18.0 degrees Celsius ,Dharamsala 16.8 degrees Celsius, Shimla 14.1 degrees Celsius, Manali 12.6 degrees Celsius and Kalpa 8.2 degrees Celsius.

The local MeT office has predicted rains or snowfall in lower, mid and higher hills for four-five days from January 3 onwards as a fresh Western Disturbance is very likely to affect western Himalayan region during that time.