Severe cold grips North India; IMD predicts cold wave conditions to prevail for next 3 days over three states

Severe cold grips northern India as the mercury dropped to near freezing temperature in Rajasthan's Churu on Saturday.

As per the India Meteorological Department (IMD), cold wave to severe cold wave conditions have been prevailing in some parts of north Rajasthan and Punjab, while cold wave conditions prevail in isolated pockets over Jammu and Kashmir, Ladakh, Gilgit, Baltistan and Muzaffarabad, Himachal Pradesh, Haryana, north Rajasthan and north Madhya Pradesh.

The minimum temperature was recorded at 4.6°C in the Safdarjung area of Delhi, early this morning.


"In addition, dry northwesterly winds of about 10-15 kmph and markedly below normal Maximum Temperatures are prevailing over Punjab, Haryana and north Rajasthan since past three days enhancing the adverse impact of cold wave conditions which are likely to prevail during next three days and improve thereafter," said the IMD.

Churu has reported the lowest minimum temperature of -1.1°C followed by Amritsar at 0.7°C and Ganganagar at 1.1°C.

Further, the agency said that today, dense fog prevailed in isolated pockets over Haryana, Uttarakhand and Bihar, with shallow to moderate fog in parts of Punjab and in isolated pockets over Delhi, north Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh.

Resultantly, the visibility also remained low creating difficult driving conditions with slower journey times.