According to the weather department, the snow-clad western Himalayan range of Jammu and Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand is the origin of the icy cold winds that are blowing towards the northern plains.
"Cold day to severe cold day conditions very likely in some to many pockets over Punjab, Haryana, Chandigarh, Delhi, north Rajasthan and northwest Uttar Pradesh during next 2 days and decrease thereafter," said IMD in its evening bulletin.
Mahesh Palawat from private weather forecasting agency Skymet Weather also issued a similar alert wherein "Frost is expected over parts of Punjab, Haryana, west Uttar Pradesh and north Rajasthan during next two to three days."
A frost alert for the northern parts has also been raised by Navdeep Dahiya, the founder of Live Weather of India. Clear skies at night and icy winds in plains can lead to a drop in minimum temperature on Friday.
Dahiya further stated that areas at high risk for frost are Punjab, west Haryana and northwest Rajasthan's rural parts while Delhi-NCR and West Uttar Pradesh are on moderate risk.
The national capital recorded the lowest minimum temperature of the season so far with the mercury dipping to 3.5 degrees Celsius on Thursday.
"Ridge Observatory has recorded the minimum temperature of 3.5 degrees Celsius. The cold wave condition will persist till December 18, following which the temperature will rise up a notch," IMD's regional forecasting centre head, Kuldeep Srivastava told news agency IANS.
Cold wave to severe cold wave conditions are extremely likely to persist in some parts of Punjab, Haryana, Chandigarh, west Uttar Pradesh and north Rajasthan during next three days and then there will be a better temperature thereafter.
In the plains, IMD designates days as cold wave days if the minimum temperature is 10 degrees Celsius or lower and at the same time, 4.5 degrees or more below the average minimum temperature for the day for two consecutive days.
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During the next two days, northwest India will not witness any major change in its minimum and maximum temperatures. Then a rise by 2-3 degree Celsius in minimum temperatures and 5-6 degree Celsius in maximum temperatures may be experienced in the subsequent three days.
"Fall in minimum temperatures by 3-5 degree Celsius over east Madhya Pradesh, Vidarbha and Chhattisgarh and by 4-6 degree Celsius over east India during next 3 days," the IMD stated, adding that there will be fall in minimum temperatures by 2-3 degree Celsius over west India during next 48 hours.
Dense fog will be seen in isolated pockets over Assam, Meghalaya, Tripura, and Mizoram in the next three days. No significant change will be witnessed in minimum temperature over the remaining parts of the country in this timeframe.
Scattered to fairly widespread rain or thundershowers are very likely to occur over Tamil Nadu, Puducherry, Karaikal, Kerala, Mahe, and Lakshadweep area during the next three days because of the influence of the easterly wave.
"Isolated heavy to very heavy rainfall very likely over Tamil Nadu, Puducherry, Karaikal on 17th December and isolated heavy falls on 18th and 19th December and over Kerala and Mahe on 18th December and over Lakshadweep on 19th and 20th December," the weather agency added.
(With Agency Inputs)
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