It’s sunny in Shimla, Manali

Shimla, Dec 22 (IANS) The picturesque tourist resorts of Shimla and Manali experienced another sunny day on Saturday but Himachal Pradesh’s higher reaches stayed in the grip of extreme cold, the meteorological office said. It predicted no rain or snow across the state until next week.

The state capital saw the minimum temperature at 6.7 degree Celsius. However, the maximum temperature stayed at 16.2 degrees on Friday. Keylong in Lahaul-Spiti district was the coldest in the state with a low of minus 8.8 degrees Celsius, while it was minus 3 degrees in Kalpa in Kinnaur district, minus 1.6 degrees in Manali, 6.4 degrees in Dharamsala and 5.7 degrees in Dalhousie.

There will be mellow sunshine and no snowfall on Christmas Day at most of the tourist destinations.”Most of the towns in the state will witness sunny days for 8-10 days,” Manmohan Singh, director of Shimla’s Met office, told IANS. But, temperatures have been unusually low in most of the popular tourist spots like Narkanda, Kasauli, Dalhousie, Palampur and Chamba.

Nonetheless, excited holidaymakers, mainly from the northern states, have already started descending on tourist resorts across the state. The mountain peaks viewed from Shimla’s historic Ridge have been wrapped in a thick white blanket of snow. Popular resort Manali is getting a good share of tourists as its nearby hills have plenty of snow.–IANSvg/mag/vm