STATE TIMES NEWS
New Delhi: Parts of the northern India witnessed snowfall leading to subzero temperatures in several locations in Jammu and Kashmir, and Himachal Pradesh Sunday, while a dense cover of fog engulfed some regions of the country, including the national capital and Madhya Pradesh, reducing visibility and affecting traffic movement.
The IMD said the minimum temperatures is set to fall by over two to three degrees Celsius over Northwest India during the next three days.
It said while there is no significant change expected in minimum temperatures over Central and West India during the next two days, it will fall by two to four degrees Celsius thereafter.
A blanket of “dense” fog covered parts of Delhi on Sunday morning, lowering visibility and affecting traffic movement.
The rains on Saturday increased moisture content in the air that led to the “dense” fog cover, said Kuldeep Srivastava, the head of the IMD’s regional forecasting centre.
The Safdarjung Observatory, which provides representative data for Delhi, recorded fog that reduced visibility to 200 metres in the morning hours.
“Dense fog at the Palam weather station lowered visibility to just 100 metres,” Srivastava said, and added that “moderate to very dense fog is predicted for the next two days”.
Light rains in parts of Delhi under the influence of a Western Disturbance brought the mercury down by a few notches. On Sunday, the minimum temperature settled at 11.5 degrees Celsius. The mercury is likely to dip below 10 degrees Celsius on Monday with the wind direction changing to northwesterly.
Meanwhile, half of the weather stations in Kashmir valley recorded subzero night temperatures with the famous ski-resort of Gulmarg being the coldest place in Jammu and Kashmir registering a low of minus 7.6 degrees Celsius.
Pahalgam tourist resort in south Kashmir recorded a low of minus 3.2 degrees Celsius, while the night temperature in Kokernag settled at minus 2.3 degrees Celsius.
Officials said the mercury in Srinagar settled at a low of 0.1 degree Celsius.
The meteorological office has said the weather is likely to remain mainly dry till December 20 with the possibility of a decrease in night temperature.
Authorities have also issued a medium danger avalanche warning for the higher reaches of Kupwara and Bandipora districts.
Meanwhile, Keylong, Kalpa and Manali in Himachal Pradesh recorded subzero temperatures after the higher reaches of the state received fresh snowfall in the last 24 hours. Keylong, the administrative centre of the tribal district of Lahaul-Spiti, continued to be the coldest place in the state at minus 10.7 degrees Celsius on Saturday, Shimla MeT centre Director Manmohan Singh said.
