Shimla (HP), Dec 30 (PTI) Biting cold wave swept the hills and valleys of Himachal Pradesh as minimum temperatures dropped further in spite of dry weather, and thick fog engulfed the towns along rovers in the lower hills, disrupting normal life.

The local meteorological station had predicted rain or snow at isolated places in mid and high hills on December 31 and dry spell thereafter till January 5, 2024.

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The sky remained overcast at most places during the day causing marginal fall in day temperatures and strong velocity chilly winds swept the state forcing people to put on heavy woolens.

Thick fog engulfed Nalagarh in the Solan district and Bilaspur in the morning reducing visibility to a few metres and forcing vehicles to move at snail's pace.

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Kusumseri in the tribal Lahaul and Spiti district recorded the minimum temperature of minus 8.9 degrees Celsius, followed by Sumdo with minus 4.9 degrees Celsius while high altitude tribal areas reeled under arctic conditions with mercury staying 12 to 20 degrees below the freezing point.

Large numbers of tourists have thronged Shimla and other key tourist destination to ring in the New Year under white mantle of snow, hoping that the forecast of snow on the New Year's eve would come true. However, the occupancy was 70 and 40 per cent in Manali and Shimla, respectively on Friday night as per the tourism stakeholders.

Shimla is buzzing with tourists and winter carnival, organised for the first time with cultural evenings, food joints and shops exhibiting the state products are attracting huge crowds.

The maximum day temperature also dropped by a few notches and Solan was the hottest with a high of 21.3 degrees Celsius while Una, which had recorded a high of 25.2 degrees Celsius on Thursday, recorded maximum temperature of 20.2 degrees, followed by Sundernagar 18.0 degrees and Shimla 13.5 degrees Celsius. --

(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)