No respite from cold in north India

New Delhi: Cold weather conditions continued to sweep the northern belt, as some parts of Kashmir Valley received another spell of snowfall on Sunday.

Light rain occurred at isolated places over eastern Uttar Pradesh and in almost all divisions of Madhya Pradesh.

Meanwhile, some parts of the Kashmir Valley, including Srinagar, received another spell of snowfall--an unexpected spell of back-to-back snowfall after light snow on Saturday and the heavy snowfall earlier in the week, officials said.

They said Srinagar recorded about an inch of snow till 8.30 am. Some areas, especially in south Kashmir, also received snowfall which, however, stopped after some time, they said. The officials said there were no reports of snowfall at the famous ski-resort of Gulmarg, in north Kashmir, and Pahalgam tourist resort in the south. While the MeT office had forecast very light rains or snowfall at isolated places in Jammu and Kashmir on Saturday, there was no such forecast for Sunday.

There is no forecast of any major snowfall and the weather is likely to stay mainly dry till January 14, the MeT office said.

Srinagar city -- the summer capital of Jammu and Kashmir -- recorded a low of minus 2.6 degrees Celsius, up from minus 4 degrees Celsius the previous night.

Keylong and Kalpa in Himachal Pradesh continued to shiver at sub-zero temperatures, the meteorological department said.

The tribal Lahaul and Spiti's administrative centre Keylong was the coldest place in the hill state yet again at minus 8.8 degrees Celsius, Shimla MeT centre director Manmohan Singh said.

Kalpa in Kinnaur district recorded a low of minus 4.3 degrees Celsius respectively, he said.

Shimla registered a low of 5.5 degrees Celsius, the official said.

Meanwhile, the highest temperature in the state was recorded in Sundernagar at 23.2 degrees Celsius.

In Uttar Pradesh, Meerut was the coldest place where the temperature dipped to 8.8 degrees Celsius. Weather is most likely to remain dry and shallow, while moderate fog is "very likely" to engulf isolated places in the northern state between January 11-13, the weatherman said.