Snowfall, rain lower mercury in Himachal, Punjab

New Delhi, Feb 8 (PTI) Snowfall and rains todaybrought down temperatures in the hilly state of HimachalPradesh and the plains of Punjab and Haryana.

Delhiites, however, experienced a day which saw bothmaximum and minimum temperatures remain well above normal --the low was recorded at 11.7 deg C, four degrees above normalfor this time of the season and the maximum was 23.8 deg C,two degrees more than normal.

Minimum temperatures plummeted across Himachal afterthe tribal areas received fresh snowfall and thunderstormslashed mid and lower hills in the state.

Keylong and Kalpa in tribal districts of Lahaul andSpiti and Kinnaur recorded 65 cm and 50 cm of snowfallrespectively, aggravating the avalanche threat.

All schools in the tribal valleys of Lahaul and Pangiwere closed to avoid avalanche risk and the Valleys remainedwithout electricity for more than 24 hours.

Kalpa recorded a minimum temperature of minus 6 deg Cwhile Keylong was colder at a low of minus 8.6 deg C.

The picturesque Sangla Valley in Kinnaur recorded 16cm of fresh snowfall while Solang Nallah, Marhi and Koksar inKullu and Lahaul recorded 30 to 40 cm of snow.

Heavy rains and sleet resulted in minimum temperaturesdipping to 2.1 deg C, 2.9 deg C, 3 deg C and 3.1 deg C atDharamsala, Shimla, Solan and Sundernagar, respectively.

Dharamsala received 37.6 mm of rains while Bhuntar andSundernagar had 19.7 mm of rains each.

Salooni was wettest in the region with 56 mm of rains,followed by Tissa 53 mm, Karsog 40 mm, Dharamsala 37.6 mm,Manali 36 mm, Nurpur 33 mm, Jhandutta 23 mm, Joginder Nagar 20mm and Sundernagar and Bhuntar 19.7 mm each.

The maximum temperatures also registered a moderatefall with Shimla recording a high of 13.9 deg C and Dharamsalaexperiencing 20.4 deg C.

Una was the hottest with maximum temperature at 25.2deg C, followed by Sundernagar 21.2 deg C, Nahan 20.3 deg C,Solan 19.2 deg C and Bhuntar 19.1 deg C.

Overnight rains in most parts of Punjab and Haryanaalso led to a dip in temperature in the northern plains.

Though there was a dip in temperature, the minimum wasstill above normal in most parts of Punjab and Haryana, theMET office said here today. (More) PTI TEAM