The hills and valleys of Himachal Pradesh reeled under arctic conditions as the region witnessed widespread snow and rains during the last 24 hours.
The tribal areas of Lahaul and Spiti, Kinnaur and Pangi, high mountain ranges and key tourist resorts of Shimla, Manali, Narkanda, Dalhousie, Kufri and Fagu had another spell of snow while mid and lower hills were lashed by intermittent showers, accompanied by high velocity icy winds.
Keylong in Lahaul and Spiti recorded 80 cm of snow while Rohtang Pass (13,050 ft), which had 100 cm fresh snow, was closed for vehicular traffic, cutting off tribal areas from rest of the state.
The Border Roads Organisation authorities said that the pass could be opened if the region had respite from snow in next few days.
Shimla recorded 10 cm snow while Kufri and Narkanda had 20 to 45 cm of fresh snowfall disrupting vehicular traffic.
Manali and Tissa recorded 30 cm of snow while Chansel, Saach and Kunzam passes had heavy snowfall, reports reaching here said.
Shimla had coldest night of the season with minimum temperature dipping to 0 deg C while it stayed at minus 4 and minus 5 at Jakoo and Kufri.
Minimum temperatures stayed below normal across the region while maximum temperatures rose marginally as sky remained cloudy.
Una and Sundernagar were hottest in the region with day temperature at 18.6 deg C while Bhuntar had a high of 16.5 deg C followed by Nahan 15.8 deg C, Solan 15.8 deg C, Dharamsala 15.2 deg C, Shimla 13 deg C and Kalpa 0.4 deg C.
Dharamsala was wettest in the region with 38 mm of rains followed by Jubbal, Bangana and Rajgarh 24 mm each, Seobagh and Ghamroor 23 mm, Gohar 20 mm, Una, Baijnath and Nagrota Suriyan 19 mm, Nadaun, Sujanpur Tira, Dehra Gopipur and Jogindernagar 18 mm, Gaggal 17 mm, Nurpur, Palampur, Mehre and Banjar 12 mm.
The local MeT office has predicted more rains and snow in the region during the next 48 hours but a feeble Western Disturbance (WD) as an upper air system may affect the western Himalayan region from December 16 onwards