Cold weather in North India, 'yellow' weather warning issued for Himachal Pradesh

The higher reaches of Kashmir received snowfall for the second day on Tuesday even as the meteorological department issued yellow weather warning for heavy rain and snowfall in Himachal Pradesh.

Delhi’s minimum temperature dropped to 9.5 degrees Celsius as a blanket of fog covered the national capital, affecting visibility Tuesday morning

The Safdarjung and Palam weather stations recorded a visibility of 300 metres due to “moderate” fog at 8:30 am, an official of the India Meteorological Department (IMD) said.

The mercury is likely to dip further with the wind direction changing to westerly-northwesterly. These icy cold winds blow from snow-laden western Himalayas towards the plains.

The minimum temperatures in Haryana and Punjab hovered above normal limits with Chandigarh, the joint capital of the two states, recording a low of 11.5 degrees Celsius, the meteorological department said.

Very dense fog covered parts of Uttar Pradesh, where Churk was the coldest at 8.3 degrees Celsius. Lucknow recorded a minimum temperature of 12.4 degrees Celsius.

Weather is most likely to remain dry and shallow, and moderate fog at isolated places is very likely from Wednesday to Friday, the weatherman said.

The meteorological department has issued a yellow weather warning for heavy rain and snowfall in Himachal Pradesh on Saturday.

The MeT centre Shimla has forecast rains in plains and low hills on Friday and Saturday, while rain and snowfall in the middle and high hills from Wednesday to Sunday.

The MeT issues colour-coded warnings to alert the public ahead of severe or hazardous weather which has the potential to cause "damage, widespread disruption and/or danger to life". Yellow is the least dangerous among the weather warnings.

Meanwhile, weather remained dry in the state in the last 24 hours.

The tribal Lahaul and Spiti's administrative centre Keylong continued to be the coldest place in the state at minus 1.3 degrees Celsius on Tuesday, Shimla MeT centre director Manmohan Singh said.

The famous ski-resort of Gulmarg and other higher reaches of Kashmir received snowfall for the second day, while the plains were lashed by rains.

The MeT said there would be a decrease in precipitation in the Union territory from Wednesday.

Snowfall continued in many areas in the higher reaches of the valley on Tuesday with Gulmarg, in north Kashmir, recording about seven inches of fresh snowfall, officials said.

They said other areas like Gurez, Mughal Road and Zojilla axis on Srinagar-Leh road also received fresh snowfall which was going on when the last reports came in.

The officials said most places in the plains of the Valley received heavy rains which continued this morning.

Gulmarg was the only place in the Kashmir Valley to record sub-zero temperatures last night as the mercury there settled at a low of minus 2.4 degrees Celsius, they said.

All the remaining weather stations in the Valley, including Pahalgam, recorded the minimum temperature above zero degrees Celsius, with the night temperature in Srinagar settling at a low of 2.4 degrees Celsius, they added.