New Delhi: Several states reeling under the cold wave saw the temperature dipping to the season’s lowest on Friday as Rajasthan's Bikaner touched zero degrees and Churu recorded a minimum temperature of one degrees celsius, according to India Meteorological Department. The cold conditions prevailed in several northern states including Haryana and Punjab where minimum temperatures were recorded below normal at many places on Friday.
State-Wise Updates
Madhya Pradesh
Nowgong, Chhatarpur district in Madhya Pradesh recorded temperature dipping to 0.2° celsius, according to the IMD. Schools were closed in a few districts of the state on Friday as the intense cold spell continued across the state, officials said, as per news agency PTI. The lowest temperature was recorded at 0.2 degree Celsius in Nowgong town of Chhatarpur district in the morning, said H S Pandey, a senior official at the IMD office, as per PTI.
Traffic on the roads was thin in many parts of the state and people were seen huddling around bonfires.
Schools up to Class 8 remained closed in some districts including Bhopal, Indore, Vidisha, and Ujjain on the orders of the local administration. Dense fog was reported in Guna, Satna, Datia, Jabalpur, Sagar, and Chhatarpur districts, while moderate fog covered areas of Gwalior, Rewa districts and Nowgaon town in Chhatarpur district.
Delhi
Residents in the national capital woke up to 1.8 degrees Celsius on Friday. People were seen lighting bonfires to get some relief from the spine-chilling winter that has engulfed the entire Delhi-NCR.
The cold is however proving to be a serious problem for the homeless people in the national capital. Delhi Urban Shelter Board is opening shelter homes for these people so that they can bear the prevailing cold conditions in the city.
According to the IMD, the minimum temperature in Delhi will continue to remain below 10 degrees Celcius for the next five days while the maximum temperature will hover between 17-20 degrees Celsius. The weather department has also predicted cold wave conditions on Friday.
Haryana & Punjab
According to the Met department's weather report, Narnaul was the coldest place in Haryana, recording a minimum temperature of 2.5 degrees Celsius.
Hisar, which recorded a minimum temperature of 4 degrees, was also gripped by biting cold. Bhiwani recorded a low of 5.8 degrees Celsius, Karnal 4.8 degrees, and Rohtak 6.2 degrees. The minimum temperature in Ambala settled at 4.8 degrees Celsius.
In Punjab, Balachaur recorded a low of 3.5 degrees Celsius. Bathinda recorded a low of 3.6 degrees Celsius, Gurdaspur 3.8 degrees, Ludhiana 4.6 degrees, Patiala 5.5 degrees, and Amritsar 5 degrees. In Mohali, the minimum temperature settled at 5.4 degrees Celsius.
Chandigarh, the common capital of the two states, recorded a low of 5 degrees Celsius on Friday.
The maximum temperatures in Haryana and Punjab, including in Chandigarh, have dropped sharply for the past few days, settling between 11 degrees and 15 degrees Celsius. Several parts of Punjab and Haryana were once again enveloped by fog, reducing visibility.
Jammu & Kashmir
Gulmarg recorded a minimum temperature of - 5 degrees Celcius, Jammu recorded 3.7 degrees celsius, Pahalgam - 8.6 degrees, and Srinagar was 5.5 degrees celsius as mentioned on the IMD website.
An active Western Disturbance is likely to affect northwest India during the second half of the week, it is likely to cause light/moderate scattered to fairly widespread rainfall/snowfall over the Western Himalayan Region and light isolated rainfall over adjoining plains of northwest India, according to the IMD.