Tourists cheer as Manali sees snow
Shimla: Snowfall continued to elude this Himachal Pradesh capital on Saturday, but the tourist resort of Manali had snow.
The minimum temperature recorded at Manali was one degree Celsius, the weather office here said.
“Most of the higher reaches in the state have been getting snow since last (Friday) night,” Manmohan Singh, director of the Met Office here, told IANS.
He said picturesque Kalpa, some 250 km from Shimla, experienced four cm of snow. Keylong in Lahaul-Spiti district saw 20 cm snowfall.
Keylong was the coldest place in the state with a low of minus seven degree Celsius, while it was minus 3.2 degree in Kalpa, 3.8 in Dharamsala, minus 1.1 degree in Dalhousie and 3.7 degrees in Shimla.
As news of the snowfall flashed across the plains, tourists started arriving in Manali and the nearby hills.
The weatherman said western disturbances — storm systems originating from Caspian Sea and moving across the Afghanistan-Pakistan region — are likely to remain active in the region till January 9.
Under the influence of western disturbance, rainfall and snowfall will occur at most places in the state till January 6.
Thereafter, under the influence of another western disturbance from January 8, isolated to scattered precipitation would occur in the state till January 9.
Most of the prominent tourist towns like Shimla, Narkanda, Kufri, Kalpa and Dalhousie are likely to have light to moderate spells of snowfall, he added.
