Delhi-NCR Weather Updates: Mercury dips to 2° Celsius as cold wave hits north India; dense fog, zero visibility in parts of city

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New Delhi | Jagran News Desk: Cold wave continued to hit north India, including Delhi-NCR, on Thursday after the minimum temperature dropped to 2 degrees Celsius in the national capital. Further, dense fog was also reported in several parts of the Delhi-NCR with visibility being down to as low as 50 meters in some areas.

The Indian Meteorological Department (IMD) has warned that the cold wave will continue across north India for the next few days, noting that moderate to dense fog is expected in several areas on Friday and Saturday.

According to senior IMD scientist Kuldeep Srivastava, cold and dry northernly winds will continue to blow from the western Himalayas over the next few days, bringing the minimum temperature further down across north India.

"Hence, Cold Day and severe Cold Day conditions very likely to continue in many pockets over Punjab and Haryana, Chandigarh and Delhi and in some pockets of Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand during next 3 days," the weather department said, as reported by news agency PTI.

Srinagar records its lowest minimum temperature in eight years

The weather department on Wednesday had said that Srinagar, the summer capital of Jammu and Kashmir, recorded its lowest minimum temperature in eight years. It said that Srinagar recorded a low of minus 7.8 degrees Celsius, which was the lowest temperature recorded in the city in eight years.

According to an official, the exact same minimum temperature was recorded in the city in 2012 on January 14. The rest of the Valley was also reeling under intense cold.

Scattered to fairly widespread rainfall predicted in Tamil Nadu, Kerala

The Indian Meteorological Department has also predicted that that scattered to fairly widespread rainfall will lash isolated parts of Tamil Nadu, south Kerala and Lakshadweep during the next 24 hours.

It also said that extremely heavy rainfall was observed at isolated places over Tamil Nadu on Wednesday.

"Under the influence of the cyclonic circulation over Comorin area and adjoining Maldives area in lower tropospheric levels, scattered to fairly widespread rainfall with isolated heavy falls and moderate thunderstorm and lightning very likely," the weather department tweeted.