Mercury continued to rise across the hills of Himachal Pradesh Monday, with temperatures recorded one to seven degrees Celsius above the season's average.
Shimla, at an altitude of 2,130 metres, was "hot" at 29.5 degrees Celsius, a whopping seven notches above what is the average for this time of the season. It recorded a high of 29.1 degrees Celsius Sunday.
"The maximum temperature remained above average in the state due to lack of rain," an official of the meteorological office told IANS.
He said Una town, located on the Punjab border, was the hottest at 43 degrees Celsius, while it was 34.8 degrees in Dharamsala - 4.5 notches above average - 39.4 degrees in Sundernagar in Mandi district, 30 degrees in Manali, and 25 degrees in Kalpa town.
The Met department said dry weather would prevail across the state Tuesday.