The mercury rose in the northern Indian plains with Delhi recording the warmest February day in a decade today, as an avalanche warning was issued for parts of Jammu-Kashmir and Himchal Pradesh till tomorrow evening.
In the national capital, the maximum temperature rose to 32.4 degrees Celsius, making it the hottest February day in the past one decade.
"The day temperature settled at 32.4 degrees Celsius, 8 notches above the season's average, which is the hottest February day witnessed since 2007," the Met office said.
The minimum temperature was pegged at 16.4 degrees Celsius, five notches above the normal, the official said.
A medium to high danger avalanche warning has been issued for some avalanche-prone areas of Jammu and Kashmir and Himachal Pradesh for 24 hours starting 5 PM today.
"High danger avalanche warning exists for avalanche-prone slopes of Kargil district. Medium danger avalanche warning exists for avalanche-prone slopes of Kupwara and Bandipora districts of Jammu and Kashmir," Chandigarh-based Snow and Avalanche Study Establishment (SASE) said.
Similarly, medium danger avalanche warning exists for slopes of Lahul-Spiti district in Himachal Pradesh, it said.
The Srinagar-Jammu National Highway was closed as rains trigerred landslides at several places along the nearly 300-km long road, the only all-weather road link connecting Kashmir with the rest of the country.
An official of the Traffic Control Room said one-way traffic from Jammu to Srinagar was scheduled to ply on the highway today, but the vehicles have been halted near Nagrota in Jammu region due to landslides.
A spokesman of the Meteorological Department said most parts of the Valley, including summer capital Srinagar, received rains overnight.
Leh in frontier region of Ladakh was the coldest recorded place in Jammu and Kashmir at minus 3 degrees Celsius, the spokesman said.
Cold conditions revived in several parts of Himachal Pradesh as high-altitude tribal areas and other higher hills had another spell of moderate snowfall while mid and lower hills experienced widespread rains.
The high altitude tribal areas and mountain passes of Rohtang and Kunzam received 20 cm to 30 cm of snow.
Udaipur and Keylong in tribal Lahaul and Spiti district recorded 13 cm and 8 cm of precipitation while Kalpa and Kothi gauged 2 cm and Khadrala 1 cm of snow till this morning.
Minimum temperatures today hovered several notches above normal in most parts of Punjab and Haryana with Chandigarh recording it at 15.2 degrees Celsius, up six notches.
Amritsar registered a low of 14.2 degrees Celsius, seven notches above normal, while Ludhiana and Patiala recorded their minimums at 13 and 14.2 degrees Celsius respectively.
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