Mercury crosses 40 degrees in Himachal hills

Shimla, May 18 (IANS) Himachal Pradesh continued to experience hot weather on Wednesday with the day temperature crossing the 40 degree mark in the lower hills, a Met official said.

Una town, located adjoining Punjab, was the hottest with a high of 43.2 degrees Celsius.

"Temperatures remained two to five degrees above average across the state due to lack of rainfall," an official of the meteorological office told IANS.

Sundernagar recorded a maximum temperature of 38.2 degrees Celsius, while Dharamsala, the headquarters of Tibetan government-in-exile, was three notches above average at 33.2 degrees.

Shimla was hot at 28.9 degrees, 3.8 notches above average.

The Met department said the weather would largely remain dry till the weekend.