New Delhi: Fresh snowfall occurred in Himachal Pradesh and Kashmir, where road and air links were snapped with the rest of the country, while rains lashed across states in north India, which the IMD predicted is likely to witness an intense wet spell till Tuesday.
While the traffic on the Srinagar-Jammu national highway was suspended following the snowfall, which also disrupted the air traffic to and fro Srinagar airport, the Meteorological Department predicted heavy rain and snowfall in Himachal Pradesh, which also received light showers.
The India Meteorological Department (IMD) said north India is likely to witness an intense wet spell till Tuesday, with a fairly widespread precipitation accompanied with thunderstorm, lightning and hailstorm at isolated places, .
The activities will peak on Sunday and Monday over the plains (Punjab, Haryana, Chandigarh, Delhi, west Uttar Pradesh and north Rajasthan) and on Monday over the western Himalayan region (Jammu and Kashmir, Ladakh, Gilgit-Baltistan and Muzaffarabad, Himachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand), it added.
After the wet spell, fresh northerly-northwesterly winds are likely to set in over the plains of northwest India, causing "cold wave to severe cold wave conditions" at isolated places in Punjab, Haryana and north Rajasthan from January 7 onwards, the IMD said.
On Sunday, heavy rains lashed Delhi where the minimum temperature settled at 9.9 degrees Celsius, while the maximum settled at 15.8 degrees Celsius.
The Safdarjung observatory, which provides official figures for the city, recorded 14.8 mm rainfall at 5.30 pm, while the Palam weather station recorded 5.3 mm and Lodhi Road recorded 18.6 mm rainfall.
Heavy rain also led to waterlogging in many parts of the national capital.
Further north, a blanket of snow covered Kashmir as most areas received moderate snowfall, cutting the valley's surface as well as air connection with the rest of the country.
The snowfall started during the night at most places and early in the morning at few places.
Srinagar received about three to four inches of fresh snowfall, while Qazigund the gateway town to the valley in south Kashmir recorded around nine inches of snowfall.
The areas around Jawahar Tunnel on the Srinagar-Jammu national highway recorded about ten inches of snowfall, leading to suspension of traffic.
The snowfall also disrupted the air traffic with no flight operations taking place at the airport due to accumulation of snow on the runway. The minimum temperature improved across the valley due to the snowfall but still stayed below the freezing point. Srinagar city — the summer capital of Jammu and Kashmir — recorded a low of minus 1.5 degrees Celsius — up from the previous night's minus 5.9 degrees Celsius.