Shimla, Dec 10 (IANS): The hills of Himachal Pradesh might experience rains and snowfall this week, a weather official said here Monday.

"There are chances of heavy rain and snowfall in middle and high hills across the state Dec 13 and 14," an official at the meteorological office here told IANS.

He said the western disturbances - storm systems originating from Caspian Sea and moving across the Afghanistan-Pakistan region - are likely to be active in the region from Tuesday.

The Met Office's forecast has brought cheer to the state's hospitality industry as snow is the biggest draw for the tourists.

"If there is a snow in nearby tourist spots of Shimla, we will have a good number of tourists in the coming weekend," said Vijay Sharma, assistant general manager of Holiday Home Hotel, a government-run venture here.

Places like Kufri and Narkanda near Shimla and the hills overlooking Manali, about 250 km from Shimla, already experienced mild snow Nov 29.

The Rohtang Pass (13,050 feet), located 51 km from Manali, and Baralacha Pass (16,020 ft) have so far experienced good spells of snowfall.

The night temperature Sunday in Keylong, the state's coldest place, was 4.6 degrees Celsius below the freezing point.

Kalpa saw a low of 0.6 degree, while the temperature was one degree in Manali and 8.4 degrees in Dharamsala.

Shimla recorded a minimum of 4.3 degrees while the maximum stayed at 15.4 degrees.