Mercury hovers around freezing point in Himachal Pradesh

Shimla: Intense cold wave accompanied by dry spell continued in Himachal Pradesh as mercury stayed below freezing point at most places in the state.

Keylong in tribal Lahaul and Spiti district recorded minimum temperature at minus 10.1 degrees, while Manali, Kalpa and Solan recorded a low of minus 3.6 deg, minus 2.4 deg and minus 1.4 degrees respectively.

Bhuntar and Sundernagar followed by minus 1.0 deg, Una 1.7 deg, Shimla 3.1 deg, Dharamsala 5.2 deg and Nahan 5.8 deg Celsius.

The high altitude tribal areas reeled under biting cold wave conditions with minimum temperatures staying between minus 12 and minus 23 degree Celsius.

The intense cold wave conditions have paralysed normal life in tribal areas and all natural sources of water in the region are frozen for past five weeks.

The cold spell has resulted in sharp reduction of water in major snowfed rivers and power generation in hydropower projects has slumped to 30 percent.

There was no significant change in maximum day temperatures across the region with Bhuntar and Una recording maximum of 20.0 deg, followed by Solan 18.8 deg, Sundernagar 18.4 deg, Nahan 16.4 degree, Dharamshala 13.4 deg, Shimla 12.8 deg, Manali 12.6 deg and Kalpa 11 degrees C.

The local MeT office has predicted dry weather in the region over next four days and rains or snow at isolate places from January 28 onwards.