Cold conditions prevail in north India; TN, Puducherry likely to receive more rainfall next week

New Delhi: Cold conditions prevailed in north India on Friday with isolated places in Himachal Pradesh receiving fresh snowfall, even as the weatherman predicted that a low pressure area over the Bay of Bengal could bring more rains next week in Tamil Nadu and Puducherry, which were hit by severe cyclonic storm 'Nivar' a day before. In the national capital, the maximum temperature was recorded at 27 degrees Celsius, a notch above normal while the minimum temperature was 10.2 degrees Celsius, normal for this time of the year.

Delhi's air quality also improved to be in the "moderate" category due to favourable wind speed and is likely to get even better.

The city's 24-hour average air quality index (AQI), which was 302 on Thursday, improved to 137 on Friday, with experts saying stronger winds and a drastic reduction in the contribution of stubble burning were two major reasons for cleaner skies over Delhi.

The central government's Air Quality Early Warning System for Delhi said the air quality is likely to remain in the "satisfactory" to "moderate" category on Saturday and in the "moderate" to "poor" category on Sunday.

In Himachal Pradesh, tourist hotspots Kufri and Kalpa received fresh snowfall while Keylong recorded the lowest temperature in the state at minus 9.9 degrees Celsius.

While Kalpa in Kinnaur district recorded 17 cm snowfall, Kufri registered one cm.

The minimum temperatures in Kufri and Dalhousie were recorded at 1.5 degrees Celsius and 3.4 degrees Celsius respectively while the highest temperature recorded on Thursday was in Una at 27 degrees Celsius.

Further north, Kashmir experienced a dry but cold weather on Friday with Pahalgam tourist resort in Anantnag district being the coldest recorded place at minus 6.5 degrees Celsius.

A MeT Department official said while the day temperature was almost around the normal for this part of the season at most of the places, the minimum settled several degrees below the normal at many places.

Srinagar, which recorded a minimum of 0.5 degrees Celsius, was the only place in the Kashmir valley where the night temperature settled above the freezing point.

The MeT office has forecast mainly dry weather in Jammu and Kashmir till December 1.

In Punjab and Haryana, the minimum temperatures hovered above normal limits with Chandigarh, the common capital of the two states, recording a low of 9.1 degrees Celsius, one notch above normal.

In Haryana, Ambala recorded a low of 9.9 degrees Celsius, up two notches against normal while Karnal recorded a low of 9.4 degrees Celsius.

Amritsar in Punjab recorded a low of 7.7 degrees Celsius, two notches above normal.

Meanwhile there was some relief from cold conditions in parts of Rajasthan, including Jaipur, as the sky cleared compared to the day before.

On Thursday night, Mount Abu, the only hill station in the state, recorded a minimum temperature of 3.4 degrees Celsius.

According to the weather office, light to moderate fog is likely to occur anywhere on November 27-28, whereas during November 28-30, cold wave is also likely to revive in the northern parts of the state.

In Uttar Pradesh, very light rain was recorded at isolated places over western parts while the weather remained dry in the eastern region with shallow to moderate fog at isolated places

The day temperatures were markedly below normal in the Agra division, appreciably below normal in the Jhansi division, below normal in Gorakhpur, Kanpur, Bareilly, Moradabad divisions and normal in the remaining divisions of the state.

Allahabad recorded the highest maximum temperature at 28.3 degrees Celsius, while the lowest minimum temperature at 8.6 degrees Celsius was recorded in Banda.

In the south, the regional weather office said a low pressure area over the Bay of Bengal on November 30 could bring more rains to Tamil Nadu and Puducherry from December 1.

The forecast for more rains for the southern state and the union territory comes after severe cyclonic storm 'Nivar' made landfall between Tamil Nadu and Puducherry early on Thursday, bringing sharp showers.

At least three people were killed in Tamil Nadu in rain-related incidents like wall and tree collapse, while over a thousand trees were uprooted.

Deputy Director General of Meteorology, Chennai, S Balachandran said , the system was likely to intensify into a depression later.

"A low pressure area is likely to form over southeast Bay of Bengal during the next 48 hours. It is very likely to intensify into a depression on November 30 and move towards the Tamil Nadu coast. As a result, there will be widespread rains in Tamil Nadu and neighbouring Puducherry from December 1-3, he said.

He also forecast light to moderate rains in Tamil Nadu and Puducherry for the next two days in some places.

The India Meteorological Department (IMD) said extremely heavy rainfall was also recorded at isolated places over Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh while rain/thundershowers were observed at most places over coastal Andhra Pradesh and Rayalseema, a few places over Telangana and at isolated places over sub-Himalayan West Bengal, Sikkim, Jharkhand, East Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh among others.

The IMD has predicted heavy rainfall at isolated places over coastal Andhra Pradesh and Yanam and Andaman and Nicobar Islands while it has said thunderstorm with lightning may occur at isolated places over Rayalseema, Kerala & Mahe and Coastal Andhra Pradesh and Yanam.