Mercury plummets across Himachal; Tabo records coldest night at -10.2°C

Piercing cold wave conditions gripped most parts of Himachal Pradesh on Sunday, with Tabo in Lahaul and Spiti district witnessing its coldest night of the year with the minimum temperature recorded at minus 10.2 degree Celsius.

The mercury hovered around freezing point at several places. Kukumseri and Kalpa logged a minimum temperature of minus 6.7 degrees Celsius and minus 4.2 degrees Celsius, respectively, while Narkanda and Solan shivered at minus 1.5 degrees Celsius and minus 0.6 degrees Celsius.

Palampur and Seobagh recorded a minimum temperature of zero on the Celsius scale, followed by Reckongpeo at 0.1 degrees, Kufri at 0.4 degrees, Shimla and Manali at 2.6 degrees, Bajauri at 2.9 degrees and Dharamshala at 3.4 degrees.

High-altitude tribal areas and other higher reaches in the state reeled under biting cold wave conditions.

While no official data is available for the remote tribal belts and inaccessible high-altitude terrains, minimum temperatures are presumed to be at least 10-12 degrees below freezing point, resulting in the freezing of natural water sources like lakes, springs, and rivulets and tributaries of snow-fed rivers.

Koksar received 2 cm of fresh snowfall while Kalpa and Gondla too saw traces of snow.

However, the weather remained dry in the rest of the state. Snowfall at higher altitudes of Lahaul and Spiti has been reported, while some parts of Pangi in Chamba district are under a thin blanket of snow since New Year.

The local meteorological station has predicted light rain or snowfall at isolated areas in the higher hills on January 6 and issued yellow alert for dense fog at isolated places in Solan, Sirmaur and Kangra districts on January 6 and 7, and in Bilaspur, Hamirpur and Mandi districts from January 6-9

Thick ground frost occurred at several places in lower and mid hills, making the roads slippery during the morning hours.