Mercury registered sharp fall in Himachal Pradesh today with state capital Shimla and high altitude tribal areas experiencing a fresh spell of moderate snowfall and lower hills receiving mild rain.
The region had a clear day in morning but thick convective clouds overcast the sky and icy winds swept the region as the day advanced.
Shimla and its surrounding resorts of Kufri, Fagu and Narkanda and tribal areas of Lahaul and Spiti and Kalpa and Rohtang and Kunzum passes and other high mountains also experienced fresh snowfall.
Thin layer of white snow covered the roads, trees and rooftops, presenting a fascinating view and local people and tourists braved biting cold wave conditions to enjoy snowfall.
While sky remained heavily overcast at key tourist resort of Manali, the upper areas of Solang, Mari, Rohtang Pass, Koksar and other high altitude areas experienced moderate snowfall.
Kalpa in Kinnaur tribal district received 10 cm of fresh snow while state capital Shimla recorded 3 cm of fresh snowfall.
The lower hills of the state also had light showers while the mercury dipped by a few notches.
Keylong in tribal Lahaul and Spiti district recorded minimum temperature at minus 5.7 degrees Celsius, while Kalpa and Manali recorded a low of minus 3.6 and minus 1.6 degrees Celsius, respectively.
Solan, Sundernagar and Bhuntar shivered at zero degree, 0.6 degree and 0.9 degree, while Shimla recorded a low of 1.6 degrees, followed by Una 3.0, Nahan 5.1 and Dharamsala 5.8 degrees Celsius.
The sharp fall in mercury created foggy conditions in lower hills while thick ground frost occurred in mid and higher hills.
The high altitude tribal areas groaned under arctic conditions with minimum temperature staying between minus 10 and minus 18 degrees Celsius and all natural sources of water like lakes, springs and rivulets and tributaries of major rivers in high altitude tribal areas are frozen.
Maximum day temperature dipped to 4.2 degrees at Keylong while Una recorded a high of 18.4 degrees, followed by Bhuntar 17.5, Sundernagar 17.4, Nahan 17.0, Solan 16.8, Dharamsala 13.6, Shimla 12.0 and Kalpa 8.0 degrees Celsius.
