North India Shivers In Severe Cold, Mercury In National Capital Dips To 2.4 Degrees Celsius

Cold wave conditions continued unabated in several parts of north India on Saturday with Delhi recording the season's lowest temperature and the IMD predicting some relief in the region from December 31 onwards. The minimum temperature on wee hours settled at 2.4 degrees Celsius in the national capital. Such a long cold spell of cold was last witnessed was in December 1997. According to meteorological department, the city will witness clear sky, shallow fog in the morning, cold day to severe cold day conditions at many places.

A dense fog is very likely in isolated pockets of Punjab, Haryana, Chandigarh, Delhi, north Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh for the next three days, over north Madhya Pradesh, Bihar, Jharkhand, sub-Himalayan West Bengal, Sikkim and Odisha for the next two days and over the northeast for the next four-five days, the IMD said.

In Jammu and Kashmir, Srinagar recorded the coldest night of the season with the city freezing at minus 5.6 degrees Celsius, the regional MeT office said.

The minimum temperatures across Kashmir and Ladakh remained several degrees below the freezing point owing to a clear sky, a MeT department official said.

The ski-resort of Gulmarg in north Kashmir recorded a low of minus 9.5 degrees Celsius last night—up from the previous night’s minus 11.2 degrees Celsius, he added.

The night temperature at Pahalgam, which also serves as one of the base camps for the annual Amarnath yatra in south Kashmir, witnessed a low of minus 12 degrees Celsius as against the minus 12.7 degrees on Thursday, the official said.

According to the IMD, a "cold day" is when the maximum temperature is at least 4.5 notches below normal. A "severe cold day" is when the maximum temperature is at least 6.5 degrees Celsius below normal.

A fresh western disturbance is very likely to affect the western Himalayan region from the night of December 30, the MeT department said.

Under the influence of this western disturbance, major parts of northwest and central India are very likely to experience fairly widespread to widespread rainfall, accompanied with hailstorm, at isolated places during December 31-January 1, it said.