Fresh spells of snow at the major tourist resorts including Narkanda, Manali and Kufri in the last 36 hours has brought the mercury down in Himachal Pradesh.
Manali returned to sub-zero levels on Wednesday night as it dipped to -0.8. The State capital Shimla also witnessed a cold night with a minimum temperature of 3 degree.
Rains and thunder showers at many places in the hills caused minor disruptions to normal human life in the State. The power supply got disrupted in some parts of the State as the light winds stormed the state on Wednesday.
The State capital Shimla also witnessed a minor spell of hailstorm around 3 pm on Thursday. Kalpa in Kinnaur district recorded maximum snowfall with 19 cm snow during last 24 hours, while Tourist resort Manali recorded seven centimeter snowfall besides getting 20 mm rainfall. Tourist attraction Kufri, near Shimla got 5 cm snowfall and Narkanda got 6 cm snowfall.
Dharmshala in Kangra district recorded 27.6 mm rainfall, Palampur 26.8 mm, Seobagh in Kullu 25 mm, Bhuntar and Bilaspur 21 mm each,Bajara 20.4 mm, Shimla eight degrees, Sundernagar 15 degrees, Solan 10 mm.
Meteorology department has predicted more rains and thundershower in parts of State in next 24 hours. While the higher reaches are expected to have more snowfall on Friday. While the hail storm may occur at isolated places at medium and lower hills in the State.
Minimum temperature declined in the State as Keylong recorded -3.4 degrees, Kalpa -1.6 degrees, Bhuntar 4 degrees, Solan 4.6 degrees, Palampur 5.5 degrees, Sundernagar 6 degrees, Nahan 7.7 degrees, Dharamshala and Una 8.4 degrees.
The hills in the Chamba district also witnessed a jolt as an earthquake with intensity of 3.5 on the Richter scale.