Severe cold spell is over after 13 days, rain ahead

Light rain is likely till friday with arrival of western disturbances; dense fog will return thereafter

Maximum temperature rose to 16.6°C on the last day of the year, bringing an end to the 13-day-long spell of severe cold days in Chandigarh on Tuesday.

A child playing in the sun at a park in Mohali on Tuesday. Maximum temperature rose to 16.6°C during the day. (Gurminder Singh/H)

The minimum temperature, too, which had dipped to the season’s lowest at 2.9°C on Sunday, rose to 4.8°C, though still a notch below normal.

A severe cold day for plains is defined as any day in the winters when maximum temperature sees a departure of more than 6.5 degrees from the normal (average of past 30 years for that date), while the minimum temperature falls below 10°C. It can also be declared when maximum temperature goes below 10°C regardless of departure. On Tuesday, maximum temperature was just four notches below normal.

The weatherman attributed the rise to the arrival of western disturbances, which are likely to bring rain over the next few days.

“Light rain is likely from Tuesday night, with spells of below 30mm likely till Friday. Cloudy weather at night will further increase minimum temperature,” said an India Meteorological Department (IMD) official.

According to the IMD’s all-India warning bulletin, the orange (be prepared) alert for Chandigarh will be downgraded to yellow (be aware) on Wednesday. However, a warning for thunder and hail has been put out for Thursday and Friday, if the temperature drops.

Visibility, which had fallen to 50 metres amid dense fog in wee hours of Tuesday, also improved to 1,500 metres by 8:30am. The likelihood of fog will drop as rains start in the city, but dense fog can be expected afterwards.

In the next three days, maximum temperature will remain between 13 and 15 degrees while minimum will remain between 5 and 8 degrees.