Shimla, March 2 (IANS): Intermittent snow continued Sunday in Himachal Pradesh's tourist resorts Shimla and Manali, triggering a rush of weekend holiday-makers to these destinations.

Shimla received 6 cm snow and 4.8 mm rain in the since Saturday.

The town recorded the minimum temperature at 1 degree Celsius, an official of the Met department told IANS.

Nearby tourist spots like Kufri, Fagu and Narkanda also experienced moderate spells of snowfall.

Manali, which saw a low of 0.2 degree, received 5 cm snow, while its nearby hills like the Solang ski slopes, Gulaba and the Rohtang Pass (52 km from Manali) have been experiencing moderate snow.

"High-altitude areas of Lahaul and Spiti, Chamba, Mandi, Kullu, Kinnaur and Shimla districts have been experiencing moderate to heavy snow for the past three days, while mid and lower hills getting rain," the official said.

Kalpa in Kinnaur district, which saw 2.3 cm snow, recorded a low of minus 2.2 degrees Celsius while the temperature was 6.4 degrees in Dharamsala with a rainfall of 25.4 mm.

As news of the snowfall flashed across the plains, weekend tourists started flocking to these hill destinations.

"We reached Shimla yesterday (Saturday) after we came to know through media that it was snowing there," said Devesh Sinha, a tourist from Chandigarh who, was here with his friends.

"The occupancy in hotels has suddenly spiked this weekend owing to snow," said D.P. Bhatia, general manager of Clarke's Hotel in Shimla.

The Met Office forecast said western disturbances - storm systems originating in the Caspian Sea and moving across the Afghanistan-Pakistan region - would remain active till Monday, bringing rain or snow.