North India and several other parts of the country reeled under a heavy spell of cold wave with the minimum temperature dropping to 3.4 degrees Celsius in the national Capital. The temperature in Jammu & Kashmir dropped to minus 5.7 degrees Celcius, while Punjab and Haryana felt the shivering cold.

In Delhi, Palam observatory registered a minimum temperature of 4.9 degrees Celsius, while areas under Lodhi Road and Ayanagar recorded minimum temperatures of 3.4 and 5 degrees Celsius respectively.

“The minimum temperature was recorded at 3.4 degrees Celsius, four notches below the season’s average. The maximum temperature was recorded at 21.3 degrees Celsius, a notch above the normal,” a Meteorological department official said here, adding the humidity oscillated between 45 and 100 per cent.

The Met Department has forecast clear skies along with the possibility of dense fog on Friday morning and haze and smoke thereafter.

Srinagar experienced the coldest December night in nearly three decades with a low of minus 7.6 degrees Celsius, while the mercury in most parts of Kashmir Valley and Ladakh region plummeted to below the freezing point resulting in frozen water bodies and water supply lines. On December 7, 1990, Srinagar had recorded a low of minus 8.8 degrees Celsius.

According to a meteorological department official, several weather stations in the Valley registered record night temperature.

While in Srinagar the mercury settled a degree down on Wednesday night from the previous night’s minus 6.7 degrees Celsius, Gulmarg and Leh were the only two stations where the minimum temperature increased on Wednesday night, the official said.

Qazigund in south Kashmir recorded a low of minus 6.1 degrees Celsius, down from minus 5.9 degrees Celsius the previous night. It was the coldest night of the season at the town and the coldest December night there in the last eight years.

Kupwara in north Kashmir recorded a low of minus 6.7 degrees Celsius, down from minus 6.4 degrees Celsius on Wednesday. It was the coldest of the season at the town and the coldest December night there in the last over a decade.

The night temperature in Pahalgam, which serves as one of the base camps for the annual Amarnath yatra in south Kashmir, settled at a low of minus 8.3 degrees Celsius on Wednesday night against minus 7.9 degrees Celsius the previous night.

Gulmarg in north Kashmir recorded a low of minus 9 degrees Celsius, slightly up from the previous night’s minus 9.4 degrees Celsius.

Leh, which recorded the lowest temperature on the Wednesday night at minus 17.1 degrees Celsius, witnessed a increase of nearly nine degrees last night, officials said.

Some water bodies, including the fringes of the famous Dal lake, have frozen. Water supply to many residential areas of Srinagar and other towns in the Valley too has frozen. Kashmir is currently under the grip of Chillai-Kalan — the 40-day harshest period of winter when the chances of snowfall are most frequent and maximum and the temperature drops considerably.

 ‘Chillai-Kalan’ ends on January 31, but the cold wave continues even after that in Kashmir. The 40-day period is followed by a 20-day long ‘Chillai-Khurd’ and a 10-day ‘Chillai-Bachha’.

The winter this season has been dry so far, although there was a spell of early snowfall in the Valley in first and second week of November.

The weatherman has predicted light rain or snowfall at isolated places in the valley and Ladakh region on Thursday.

In Chandigarh, Punjab and Haryana were under the grip of a cold wave, with their common capital Chandigarh recording the season’s coldest night so far at 3.4 degrees Celsius, which are is two notches below the normal.

Adampur in Punjab was the coldest place in the two States with a low of 0.4 degrees Celsius, followed by Amritsar, where the minimum settled at 1 degree Celsius, two notches below the normal limits, the meteorological department said.

Piercing cold gripped Ludhiana too, which recorded a minimum of 2 degrees Celsius, down three notches against normal, while Patiala’s temperature settled at 4 degrees Celsius.

Pathankot (2.9 degrees Celsius), Bathinda (2.5 degrees Celsius), Halwara (degrees Celsius) Faridkot (3.8 degrees Celsius) and Gurdaspur (3.2 degrees Celsius) too felt intense chill.

Hisar was the coldest place in Haryana with a minimum of 2.8 degrees Celsius, down four notches against normal limits. Ambala recorded a low of 4.2 degrees Celsius, Karnal’s minimum settled at 3.2 degrees Celsius, the MeT department said.

Rohtak recorded a low 4 degrees Celsius, followed by Narnaul 4.5 degrees Celsius, Sirsa 4.8 degrees Celsius and Bhiwani 5.2 degrees Celsius.

Dense fog affected normal life at many places in the region, including Amritsar, Ludhiana, Patiala, Adampur, Halwara, Bathinda, Ambala, Hisar, Karnal and Bhiwani. The cold wave conditions are likely to continue in the two States over the next few days, the weatherman said.

In Nashik, in north Maharashtra, the temperature plummeted to 1.8 degrees Celsius in parts of the district.

Nashik city recorded the lowest temperature of this season at 5.7 degrees Celsius on Thursday but an early morning temperature of 1.8 degrees Celsius was recorded at Kundewadi agricultural research centre in Niphad tehsil, officials said. This spell of cold wave will persist for another four days in the district.