Shimla, Jan 9 (IANS): It was a bright sunny day on Thursday in Himachal Pradesh after days of snowfall turned Shimla and Manali white.

"It was bright and sunny in several parts of state after three days of widespread snow and rain," an official of the Met Office told IANS.

The minimum temperature was minus 3.7 degrees in Shimla, which saw 27.2 cm of snow. This was the season's heaviest snowfall and season's lowest temperature.

Shimla's nearby destinations like Kufri, Fagu and Narkanda experienced moderate to heavy snowfall in the past 24 hours.

Snow could be seen in several areas of Shimla like the Mall Road, the Ridge, the US Club and Jakhu hills.

Keylong, district headquarters of Lahaul and Spiti, was the coldest in the state at a minimum of minus 14.6 degrees Celsius.

Kalpa in Kinnaur district saw a low of minus 9.1 degrees, while the minimum temperature was minus 7.8 degree in Manali and 1.6 degrees Celsius in Dharamsala, which saw 24.8 mm of rain.

Solan town experienced 3 cm of snow.

Parts of upper Shimla were largely cut off on the second day with heavy snow piled on roads, officials said.

Chief Minister Jai Ram Thakur has directed all the Deputy Commissioners to ensure essential services. He wanted them to be in place at the earliest and appealed to the public to be more alert.

Traffic movement beyond Dhalli, 10 km from the state capital, was suspended since a large stretch of Hindustan-Tibet Road was under a thick blanket of snow.

As news of the snowfall spread, tourists flocked to this resort destination, known for the imperial grandeur of its buildings that were once institutions of power when the town served as the summer capital of British India.

Manmohan Singh, director of the meteorological office here, said another western disturbance is likely to hit Western Himalayan region from January 11, bringing more rain and snowfall.