Night temperatures increase in Northwest

New Delhi, Feb 21 (UNI) Night temperatures registered a sharp increase in the northwest region today, providing respite from a prolonged spell of cold.

The mercury increased in Punjab with Adampur, near Jalandhar, recording the minimum temperature at 7.6 degrees as against yesterday's 5.2 degrees, followed by Amritsar recording 8.0 Ludhiana 8.1 and Patiala 9.5 degrees.

The night temperature also rose in Chandigarh and its adjoining areas in Punjab and Haryana today. The city recorded the minimum temperature at 9.0 degrees.

Isolated places in the tribal districts of Himachal Pradesh are experienced a fresh spell of intermittent snowfall since this morning due to a weakened Western Disturbance (WD) present over the adjoining state of Jammu and Kashmir.

Kelyong, Lahaul Spiti district's headquarter, had recorded about 15 to 20 cm of fresh snowfall, while several high hills, passes and important valleys had recorded over 30 cm of fresh snow up to 1730 hrs.

The higher hills of other tribal districts of Kinnuar and Chamba also experienced fresh snow since this morning and was likely to continue to bring more precipitation in the next two days.

Shimla and its adjoining areas also recorded a rise in the night temperatures with the capital town recording 5.9 degrees celsius, two degrees above normal.

The minimum temperature rose to 5.9 degrees at the state capital, 6.5 degrees at Sundernagar, 5.6 degrees at Bhuntar and minus 2.1 degrees at Kalpa. The maximum temperatures recorded at these places were 16.9, 22.8, 22.7 and six degree Celsius respectively.

Delhi continued its movement towards the spring with the mercury rising to 9.2 degrees Celsius from yesterday's 8.2 degree, with a slight mist witnessed in the morning, though the visibility levels remained near normal at 800m.

The Met office has forecast a mainly clear sky in Delhi during the next 24 hours with likelihood of slight mist in the morning.

In Kolkata, the maximum temperature had dipped to 26.2 degrees Celsius, four degrees below normal, while the minimum temperature was recorded at 15.4 degrees Celsius, two degrees below normal.

Total rainfall in the last 24 hours was recorded at 8.9 mm.

Very light to light rain occurred at a few places with moderate rain in isolated parts of Gangetic West Bengal.

The minimum temperature fell appreciably in parts of Gangetic and Sub-Himalayan West Bengal. The lowest minimum temperature of nine degrees Celsius was recorded at Bagdogra in the plains of the region.

Mainly dry weather will prevail over Arunachal Pradesh, Sub-Himalayan West Bengal and Sikkim, interior Orissa, Jharkhand, Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, Haryana, Rajasthan, Gujarat, Konkan, Goa, north Madhya Maharashtra, Marathwada, Telangana, Rayalaseema, interior Tamil Nadu, coastal and south interior Karnataka, Kerala and Lakshadweep.

Cold wave conditions prevailed at isolated places in Madhya Pradesh and Vidarbha. Night temperatures were appreciably below normal in some parts of east Uttar Pradesh, Gujarat and in remaining parts of Madhya Pradesh, and Vidarbha.

Night temperatures were appreciably to markedly above normal in some parts of Rajasthan, Saurashtra, Kutch and Telangana and were above normal in Jammu and Kashmir and in some parts of Uttarakhand, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Madhya Maharashtra and coastal Andhra Pradesh. They were normal over the rest of the country.

Rain or thundershowers have occurred at many places at isolated places in Assam, Meghalaya, Nagaland, Manipur, Mizoram, Tripura, and Sikkim, Orissa, Bihar and Andaman and Nicobar Islands.

Mainly dry weather prevailed in Arunachal Pradesh, Jharkhand and Lakshadweep.

UNI TEAM SBC RK2010