SNOWFALL: Himachal shivers

Dharamsala, December 12, 2012: The snowfall of Tuesday attracted a large number of tourists across Himachal Pradesh.

As the air traffic is nil, the tourist vehicles over loaded the major national highways leading to the towns of Shimla, Dalhousie, Dharamsala, Manali and also the nearby tourist destinations. The surrounding areas of these cities of Himachal had season’s first snowfall on Tuesday.

The bright sunny weather of Wednesday invited the tourists’ rush, jam packing the hotels in these areas.

But despite sunshine a day after snowfall, cold wave conditions gripped Himachal Pradesh today with temperature in Keylong, district headquarters town of Lahaul and Spiti, dropping to minus 8.5 degrees Celsius. Kalpa, recorded a low of 5.4 degrees Celsius below the freezing point. It was minus 3 degrees Celsius in Manali.

The minimum temperature in Shimla was 2.6 degrees Celsius, down from Tuesday’s 3.6 degrees. It was 0.5 in Solan, 1.3 in Sunder Nagar, 1.7 in Bhunter, while it was 7.4 degrees Celsius in Dharamsala.

The Met Office here said the shivering conditions would extend over the weekend as more snowfall was expected in the state during the current week.

“The minimum temperature dropped by one-five degrees Celsius in the state after Tuesday’s snowfall and widespread rains. There are chances of heavy rainfall and snowfall on December 13 and 14 as western disturbances (the weather systems that cause precipitation) are active over the region,” a Met official said.