The minimum temperature recorded at Drass town in the Ladakh region of Jammu and Kashmir was minus 30 degrees Celsius early on Thursday, the weather office said in Srinagar. Drass is known to be the second coldest inhabited place in the world after Siberia.
Regional capital Leh was not much better off, as the mercury fell to minus 20.
Even in the relatively mild Kashmir valley, people woke up to a freezing on Thursday with the mercury plummeting to minus 5.8 at the state's summer capital.
TK Jotshi, assistant director of the meteorological department in Srinagar, told IANS: "The minimum temperature recorded today was minus 5.8 degrees Celsius. A cold wave is continuing to sweep across north India. But we expect the night temperatures to rise, bringing some relief to the residents."