Guwahati: A severe cold wave continued to grip the whole North Indian belt on Sunday with numerous regions of Rajasthan seeing temperatures below freezing.
The Agricultural Research Station (ARS), Fatehpur-Zonal Shekhawati’s Director of Research, Shishram Dhaka, said that a temperature of -4.7 degrees Celsius was observed there.
“For the last two days, the temperature in areas like Sikar, Churu, and Jhunjhunu is going down to minus with a nerve-freezing cold,” he added.
According to information from the Zonal Director, the temperature on January 15 was -4.7 degrees, followed by -3.5 degrees on January 14 and 7.5 degrees on January 13.
“People’s life has been affected by the harsh winter. Snow has started accumulating in the fields. We are trying to avoid the cold, people are resorting to bonfires in the morning,” a local resident said.
The locals also mentioned that farmers have begun to worry about the harm that the freezing snow will do to the mustard crop. While gains are anticipated for wheat and other crops.
Mount Abu, a hill station in Rajasthan, was coated in a thick layer of snow as temperatures fell to all-time lows, shattering previous winter records. Here, the thermometer read -4 degrees Celsius. There was 4 to 5 inches of dense snow in the area.
The lowest temperature recorded at Mount Abu last year was -2 degrees Celsius.
A layer of fog stretched throughout Haryana, Chandigarh, Delhi, and Uttar Pradesh, passing into Punjab and neighbouring northwest Rajasthan to Bihar, according to satellite images and visibility data from the India Meteorological Department (IMD).
Safdarjung in Delhi reported a minimum temperature of 5.6 degrees Celsius around 6.10 am.
The Meteorological Department reports that at 6.10 am, the visibility in Palam was 200 metres.
Dense to extremely dense fog, as predicted by the India Meteorological Department (IMD), was seen over portions of Punjab, Northwest Rajasthan, Jammu division, Haryana, Chandigarh and Delhi, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, and Tripura.
“Dense/Very Dense Fog layer (in the white patch) extends from Punjab to Bihar across Haryana, Delhi and Uttar Pradesh,” tweeted the India Meteorological Department.
Meanwhile, IMD has issued an orange signal for heavy fog and chilly temperatures on Sunday and Monday in neighbouring Punjab and Haryana.