Shimla, April 19 (IANS): The hills of Himachal Pradesh Saturday saw a sharp fall in mercury due to overnight rain in the low and mid hills and snow in higher reaches, but the Met Office forecast mainly clear weather next week.

Most of the prominent tourist towns like Shimla, Narkanda, Kufri, Manali and Dalhousie, located in mid-hills, witnessed moderate to heavy rain, while high hills like Kalpa in Kinnaur district experienced moderate snow, according to a Met official here.

The state capital saw a minimum temperature of 5.6 degrees Celsius, while it was minus 0.6 degrees in Manali, 2.8 degrees in Dalhousie and 9.6 degrees in Dharamsala.

These towns experienced 19.2 mm, 37 mm, 74 mm and 61 mm rainfall, respectively.

Bharmour in Chamba district was the coldest place in the state with a low of minus 3.1 degrees Celsius.

"The higher reaches of Lahaul and Spiti, Kinnaur, Kullu, Shimla, Sirmaur and Chamba districts have experienced moderate snowfall," the official said.

Kalpa, some 250 km from here, and Keylong in Lahaul-Spiti experienced 10 cm and 4 cm snowfall, respectively.

The Met department said a Western disturbance - a storm system originating from the Mediterranean-Caspian Sea region and moving across the Afghanistan-Pakistan region - would be withdrawn by Sunday.