N India headed for cold spell, min temp to touch 0 & -4 deg C in plains

Already in the grip of a severe cold spell, there's more bad news in the offing for North India as vast swathes of the region are likely to experience a drop in temperatures to a minimum of -4 degrees Celsius and a maximum of 2 degrees Celsius in the plains, according to a weather expert.

According to a tweet by the weather expert, the icy, severe chill would be experienced between January 14 and 19 and is likely to be at its peak from January 16 to 18.

Jammu and Kashmir, which has literally been snowed under in what has been an unforgiving winter, would have no respite from the cold spell with the mercury predicted to drop to a minimum of -6 degrees Celsius.

Punjab, Haryana, New Delhi, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh and Norther Madhya Pradesh will be in the grip of a severe cold wave over the week, with the minimum temperature hovering between 0 and 4 degrees Celsius.

"Don't know how to put this up but upcoming spell of #Coldwave in #India look really extreme during 14-19th January 2023 with peak on 16-18th, Never seen temperature ensemble going this low in a prediction model so far in my career. Freezing -4°c to +2°c in plains, Wow!" the weather expert tweeted, tagging his post with a graphical representation of how the cold wave will play out in the northern plains over the week.

While there has been a significant improvement in the fog situation in North India over the last few days, owing to strong winds blowing in because of a Western Disturbance, the relief, according to the Met expert, won't be for long as the chill and fog will be back soon.

The fog situation has improved slightly Punjab, Haryana, Delhi, Rajasthan and West UP over the last few days.

Visibility in Amritsar increased from 25 metres on January 11 to 450 metres on January 12. Similarly, in Bathinda, the visibility improved from 0 to 200 metres on January 12. In Chandigarh, visibility rose to 400 metres from a low of 25 metres.

In Hissar and Ambala, visibility rose to as much as 1000 metres while in Palam and Safdarjung, in the national capital, the visibility improved to as high as 800 metres.