Hill stations in Himachal Pradesh may ring in a white New Year as the Meteorological office on Tuesday forecast snow in the state from January 1.However, due to snowfall, traffic may be disrupted in some areas, especially in Chamba, Kullu, Lahaul-Spiti, Shimla and Kinnaur districts, it said."Light to moderate snowfall likely to occur at some places on January 1 as western disturbances will be active. On the next two days, rainfall and snowfall are very likely to occur at many places with significant fall in day temperatures," Manmohan Singh, Director of the Met office here, told IANS.The probability of snowfall in Shimla, Kufri, Narkanda, Manali, Kalpa and Dalhousie is high from January 2.He said that western disturbance would decrease significantly on January 4 and there would be fall in minimum temperatures.If you miss this opportunity to enjoy snowfall in the hills, the met office says another western disturbance is likely to hit the state from January 6 to 8.The western disturbance is a storm system originating from the Caspian Sea and moving across the Afghanistan-Pakistan region.Widespread rains are likely to lash the lower areas of the state such as Dharamsala, Palampur, Solan, Nahan, Bilaspur, Una, Hamirpur and Mandi from January 2, bringing the temperature down.
In Shimla, a bone-chilling morning on Tuesday revived the hopes of revellers to celebrate the coming year amid snow."For the past two days, we have been desperately awaiting the onset of snow. With the Met department predicting snow in the next few days, we are hoping to enjoy the New Year with hurling of snowballs," said Kavita Gupta, a tourist visiting Shimla along with her friends from New Delhi.Like Shimla, other popular tourist destinations such as Kufri, Chail, Kasauli and Dalhousie have been devoid of snow these days.Though there has been no snowfall in the state since December 12, temperatures across Himachal have been quite low.Keylong in Lahaul-Spiti district was the coldest in the state with a low of minus 8.2 degree Celsius. Kalpa, some 250 km from Shimla, saw a night temperature of minus 3 degree Celsius, while it was minus 1.4 degrees in Manali, 2.4 degrees in Dharamsala and minus 0.4 degrees in Dalhousie.Shimla saw a low of 1.2 degree Celsius, while the maximum stayed at 12.4 degree Celsius owing to a long sunny day.According to the Met office, it snowed in Shimla on New Year''s eve in 1990, 1995, 2000 and 2002.