Banihal/New Delhi: The minimum temperatures in the northwest and central India are likely to drop by three to five degrees Celsius over the next five days, leading to cold day conditions in Delhi and a cold wave in parts of Punjab, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan, Gujarat and Maharashtra.
Cold day to severe cold day conditions are very likely over parts of Punjab, Haryana, Delhi, Uttarakhand, Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan and Gujarat over the next two to three days, the India Meteorological Department (IMD) said on Monday.
Cold wave to severe cold wave is very likely in isolated pockets of Punjab, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh, Maharashtra, Rajasthan, and Gujarat over the next five days.
Dense to very dense fog is predicted in parts of Punjab, Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan, Haryana, Delhi, Bihar, West Bengal, Odisha, Assam, Sikkim, Meghalaya and Tripura over the next two to three days, it said.
According to the IMD, a "cold day" is when the minimum temperature is less than 10 degrees Celsius and the maximum is at least 4.5 degrees Celsius below normal.
A "severe" cold day is when the maximum temperature is at least 6.5 notches below normal.
In the plains, the IMD declares a cold wave if the minimum temperature dips to 4 degrees Celsius. A cold wave is also declared when the minimum temperature is 10 degrees Celsius or below and is 4.5 notches less than normal.
A "severe" cold wave is when the minimum temperature dips to 2 degrees Celsius or the departure from normal is more than 6.4 degrees Celsius.
When visibility due to fog is reduced to the range of 0 to 50 metres is categorised as "very dense" fog, between 51 and 200 metres, it is "dense" fog, between 201 and 500 metres "moderate", and it is categorised as "shallow" if the visibility is between 501 and 1,000 metres.
Meanwhile, the strategic Jammu-Srinagar national highway was cleared for stranded vehicles on Monday as road clearance agencies pulled out a rice-loaded truck that was stuck in mud near Panthiyal in Ramban district for nearly 30 hours, officials said. Senior Superintendent of Police, Traffic, Shabir Ahmad Malik said 130 heavy motor vehicles and 10 oil tankers besides dozens of light motor vehicles, which were stranded on the highway, were allowed to move towards their destination after completion of the road clearance operation at Panthiyal, where the carriageway is single. However, he said no fresh vehicle was either al-lowed from Jammu or Srinagar for the second day on Monday.
The traffic on the highway, the only all-weather road linking Kashmir with the rest of the country, was suspended on Sunday following multiple landslides and the shooting of stones from hillocks between Chanderkote and Ramsu and snowfall in the Banihal sector.
While the road clearance agencies pressed their men and machines and cleared the highway of the obstacles, a truck loaded with rice got deeply embedded in the mud at Panthiyal and could not be moved. The operation was called off late Sunday even-ing and was resumed on Monday morning with fire and emergency service joining the effort which proved fruitful and the truck was pulled out around 1 pm, the officials said, adding the normal traffic is likely to resume on Tuesday.
Officials said the helicopter service to Mata Vaishno Devi Shrine atop Trikuta hills in Reasi district was briefly resumed on Monday morning after remaining suspended for the past two days.
Pilgrimage through the new track to the shrine was also affected due to landslides triggered by overnight rains.
The officials said the yatra to the shrine was continuing smoothly when last reports were received. A spokesperson of the Meteorological department said Katra, the base camp for the pilgrims visiting the Vaishno Devi shrine, recorded the highest 24.7 mm of rainfall during the past 24 hours till 8.30 am. Bhaderwah town of Doda district in Jammu region recorded 7.4 cm snowfall during the same period, while Jammu city recorded a rainfall of 1.6 mm, the spokesperson said. He said the minimum tempera-ture recorded in Jammu was 7 degrees Celsius, Katra 6 degrees Celsius, Bhaderwah 0.2 degrees Celsius and Banihal zero degrees Celsius. WITH AGENCY INPUTS