Severe cold wave conditions to continue in northwest India for next 3 days, says IMD

New Delhi, Jan 27: India Meteorological Department (IMD) on Wednesday said that severe cold wave conditions are likely to impact many parts of northwest India and over Saurashtra and Kutch for the next three days.

Ground frost is also likely over Punjab, Haryana, Chandigarh and Delhi during the same period.

According to reports, cold, dry northwesterly winds are blowing over plains of north India which is leading to a significant fall in minimum temperatures over northwest India.

On Tuesday, Delhi's minimum temperature had dropped to 2.1 degrees Celsius, 7 degrees below normal. Dense to very dense fog in isolated/some pockets is likely to prevail over Punjab and Uttar Pradesh during the next two days.

Due to dense fog/low cloud conditions, severe cold day conditions are very likely in some pockets over Uttar Pradesh during the next two days. Dense fog is also likely over Bihar, sub-Himalayan West Bengal, Assam, Meghalaya, Nagaland, Manipur, Mizoram and Tripura during the next 2-3 days.

"Extremely cold winds are blowing from the Western Himalayan region where there was widespread snowfall last week. Low cloud conditions are blocking sunshine in some areas which is leading to very low maximum temperatures in some places over NW India," said Kuldeep Shrivastava, head, regional weather forecasting centre.

Cold day or severe cold day is classified as such on two parameters-a minimum temperature of under 10 degrees Celsius.

A cold wave occurs in the plains when the minimum temperature is 10°C or below and/or is 4.5 notches less than the season's normal for two consecutive days. A cold wave is also declared when the minimum temperature is less than 4°C in the plains.