Cold wave conditions gripped higher hills and tribal areas of Himachal Pradesh as mercury dropped by few notches following fresh snowfall in high altitude tribal areas and other higher hills and mid and lower hills were lashed by sharp showers.
Shimla and surrounding areas were lashed by high velocity winds accompanied by sharp showers causing sharp fall in day temperature.
The sky remained heavily overcast, reducing visibility to few meters.
Seobagh in mid hills was wettest in the region with 18 mm of rains while Bajaura received 12 mm of rains, followed by Kalpa and Bhuntar 11 mm each, Jogindernagar 10 mm, Mandi 8 mm, Manali and Dalhousie 6 mm each and Saloni 4 mm.
The high altitude tribal areas and high mountain ranges of Dhauladhar and Churdhar and Rohtang, Kunzam, Saach and Chansel passes had another spell of moderate snowfall creating fresh cold wave conditions in adjoining valleys.
Una recorded maximum temperature at 35.2 deg while it dropped by two degrees to saty at 29.2 deg at Nahan, followed by Solan 26.5 deg, Sundernagar 25.4 deg, Dharamsala 23.4 deg, Shimla and Bhuntar 19.6 deg and Kalpa 15.6 deg C.
The minimum temperatures also dropped by one to two deg with Una hottest during the night with minimum temperature at 17.6 deg while it dropped to 16.1 deg at Nahan.
Keylong and Kalpa in tribal Lahaul and Spiti districts recorded minimum temperature at 1.3 deg and 2 deg while the key tourist resort of Manali recorded a low of 4.2 deg, followed by Bhuntar 9 deg, Sundernagar 11 deg, Shimla and Solan 12.2 deg and Dharamsala 14.4 deg, one to two deg below normal.
The local MeT office has predicted more rains, thunderstorms and snow in various parts of the state during next 72 hours due to a fresh Western Disturbance (WD) over north Pakistan and neighbourhood with its induced cyclone circulation over West Rajasthan and neighbourhood.
The stormy conditions are keeping the farmers on the tenterhooks as rains, storm and snow during his season was considered very harmful for apple, stone crop and standing wheat crops.
