Jan 15 Frosty winds whipped the plains of north and northwest India on Sunday, bringing minimum temperatures down to the range of 3 to 5 degrees Celsius in many areas. It is going to turn even colder until western disturbances provide some relief starting Thursday.
At minus 4.7 degrees Celsius, Fatehpur in Sikar district of Rajasthan recorded the lowest minimum temperature over the plains of northwest India. Punjab's Faridkot shivered at minus one degree Celsius. The Met Office said cold wave to severe cold wave conditions prevailed in parts of Punjab, Rajasthan, Haryana, Delhi and west Madhya Pradesh on Sunday.
Many parts of northwest and southeast Rajasthan recorded a minimum temperature in the range of 1 to 3 degrees Celsius. Parts of Punjab, Haryana, Delhi and southwest Uttar Pradesh recorded their minimum temperature in the range of 3 to 5 degrees Celsius, it said.
The mercury fell to 4.7 degrees Celsius at the Safdarjung Observatory, Delhi's primary weather station. A cold wave saw the minimum temperature drop to 2.6 degrees Celsius at Jafarpur, 3.8 degrees Celsius at Lodhi Road, 3 degrees Celsius at Ayanagar, and 3.2 degrees Celsius at Ridge in the national capital.
The data available on the IMD's website showed that the Ujwa automatic weather station (AWS) in southwest Delhi logged a minimum temperature of minus 0.1 degrees Celsius. However, a senior IMD official said the AWS "is not working". Delhi saw an intense cold wave spell from January 5 to January 9, the second longest in the month in a decade, according to the IMD data.
Night temperatures in most places of Kashmir settled below the freezing point even as the weather office has forecast a further dip in the minimum temperature over the next few days in view of dry weather. Srinagar recorded a low of minus 0.6 degrees Celsius on Saturday night, half a degree down from the night before, they said. The minimum in Kupwara, a frontier district, settled at minus 1.3 degrees Celsius, the officials said.