Light to heavy rains lashed several parts of north India intensifying cold wave conditions in the region as snowfall in higher reaches brought down day temperature considreably in Delhi and neighbouring states.
Snowfall was recorded in the higher reaches of Himachal Pradesh, Uttarkhand and Jammu and Kashmir while many places in Delhi, Haryana, Punjab, UP and some places in Rajasthan were lashed by showers with MeT department predicting more snowfall in the higher reaches.
"We have predicted heavy snowfall in parts of Uttarakhand and J&K. In HP, only few regions would experience snowfall, whereas in Uttarakhand, snowfall would be experienced in 1-2 regions," IMD Director B P Yadav said.
The sky remained overcast as scattered rains and icy winds swept through Delhi keeping people indoors.
The city received 3.8 mm of rains during the day raising humidity levels as the maximum and minimum were recorded at 16 and 14.2 degrees Celsius, the Met department said.
In Jammu and Kashmir, many places continued to reel under frigid conditions at below zero temperatures, inlcuding Srinagar, which recorded a low of minus 1.2 degrees Celsius.
Kargil was the coldest at minus 7.2 degrees Celsius followed by Leh at minus 4.7 degrees Celsius.
Several areas in higher hills in Himachal were cut off from rest of the state due to heavy snowfall as much as 150 cm of snow at Rohtang Pass and 100 cm of snow at Khara-Patthar.
Other places like Narkanda, Kufri, Fagu, Manali and Chamba recorded 55 cm, 50 cm, 50 cm, 65 cm and 40 cm snowfall.
Heavy rains lashed lower hills and Dharampur was wettest with 102 mm of rains followed by Kandaghat and Kasauli, 88 mm and 83 mm rains, Nahan and Banjjar 70 mm, and Sarahan 68 mm.
In Uttarakhand, snowfall in the higher reaches like Badrinath, Kedarnath, Gangotri, Yamunotri, Hemkund, Chakrata, Munsyari and Dharchula and rains in low lying areas including state capital Dehradun intensified cold conditions.
Many parts of Punjab and Haryana received moderate to heavy rainfall with Chandigarh recording the most at 74.3 mm.
Other places in the states to receive rains included Panchkula (50 mm), Kalka (40 mm), Ambala (39.8 mm), Ludhiana (23.5 mm), Madhopur (19.3 mm), Patiala (17.1 mm) and others.
Misty weather affected normal life in Rajasthan with Jaisalmer and Mount Abu recorded the lowest temperatures at 6.4 and 6 degrees Celsius as light rains occurred in parts of Hadaui region and Jhalawar recorded the most rainfall of 7 mm, a MeT report said.
Light to moderate rain occurred at many places in Uttar Pradesh in the last 24 hours with Shahjahanpur recording the lowest minimum temperature at 3 degrees Celsius.
