It's April and large parts of Himachal Pradesh on Thursday witnessed cold conditions, with the minimum temperature staying close to the freezing point owing to widespread snowfall and rainfall, weather officials said.Four persons have died due to weather-related incidents.A government spokesperson said traffic on the National Highway No. 5 (NH-5), linking Shimla with Sumdoh bordering Indo-Tibetan border, has been disrupted at several points in Kinnaur district owing to landslides triggered by the rain and snow.Chief Secretary V.C. Pharka held a state-level disaster management meeting to take stock of losses due to heavy rains and hailstorm in mid hills and snowfall in higher reaches in the past two days.An official statement said four persons died due to weather-related incidents in the state in the past two days.Two people were killed and eight injured when a lightning hit them at Khadaan village in Rampur subdivision of Shimla district on Wednesday, while one person and 15 head of cattle were killed in a lightning stike at Dharjot village in Baijnath subdivision of Kangra district.The fourth death was of a man who was reported to have accidentally fallen in Sundernagar subdivision of Mandi district.
According to a Meteorological Department official here, hills overlooking Manali experienced moderate spells of snowfall -- significant for the season. The condition will continue till Friday."High-altitude areas of Lahaul and Spiti, Chamba, Mandi, Kullu, Kinnaur and Shimla districts have experienced moderate to heavy snow," the official said.Keylong in Lahaul-Spiti district was the coldest in the state with a low of 1.6 degrees Celsius. It saw eight centimetres of snow.The state capital Shimla, with the night temperature at 6.3 degrees Celsius, recorded 52.7 mm rain.Popular tourist destination Manali, which saw 50.4 mm rain, recorded a low of 3.6 degrees Celsius.Other picturesque tourist centre Kalpa in Kinnaur district, some 250 km from here, experienced 16 cm snow and 47.4 mm rainfall. It recorded the minimum temperature at the freezing point.Meteorological Director Manmohan Singh said 12.3 mm of rainfall was experienced in the state as against normal rainfall of 2.6 mm, which is a 381 per cent departure from the normal.He said 63.4 mm rainfall has been recorded in Kalpa, which has broken the record set in 2002.The Met Office has forecast more snow and rain across the state due to active Western Disturbance till Friday.Western Disturbance is a weather storm system originating in the Mediterranean and Caspian Sea region that causes rain and snowfall in the northwestern parts of the Indian subcontinent.