New Delhi, Dec 23 (IANS) Just two days ahead of Christmas, temperatures dropped sharply across northern India with many places recording the season’s lowest temperature Wednesday.
In Srinagar, the summer capital of Jammu and Kashmir, the mercury dipped to minus 3.4 degrees celsius recording the coldest night of the season so far with people Wednesday waking up to frozen taps and icy roads.

In Leh and Kargil, people shivered as the mercury level dropped to a freezing minus 16.4 and minus 9.6 degrees celsius respectively.

Adampur town in Punjab was the coldest in the region with a minimum temperature recorded at one degree celsius.

Temperatures at Patiala and Ludhiana cities in the state recorded at 4.5 and 4.4 degrees celsius respectively, whereas Amritsar shivered at 2.8 degrees celsius.

Savita Sharma, a homemaker in Amritsar, said: “We are used to cold winters, still it’s difficult to cope with the sudden dip in the temperatures, especially for the aged and the ill. My father-in-law for instance has arthiritis and suffers during winters. He constantly has a hot water bag and hardly steps out”.

In Ambala, Haryana, the minimum temperature was recorded at four degrees celsius.

For the second day in a row, the national capital recorded the season’s lowest temperature Wednesday at 6.4 degrees celsius. The maximum temperature was an average 22.6 degree celsius.

Harshita Saxena, a student, said: “Until about mid December, the weather was so warm, it hardly felt like winter! But now with Christmas around the corner the typical biting cold of Delhi is back”.

Akshita Das, a school teacher, however had no such thrill about the dipping temperatures.

“Despite wearing a sweater and a shawl, I am freezing in the cold. The first two weeks of December were quite tolerable but suddenly the temperatures seem to have dropped and accompanied with a cold wind, it’s back to the piercing winters that Delhi has. You can’t shield yousrelf even with woollens!” Das said.

The India Meteorological Department (IMD) said the mercury in Delhi is expected to dip even further - around five degrees celsius - Thursday.

In Keylong, the headquarters of Lahaul and Spiti district in Himachal Pradesh, recorded the lowest temperature of the season with the mercury plummeting to minus 10.3 degrees celsius.

Despite the sudden dip, the IMD said that it was not a cold wave.

B.P. Yadav, director of IMD, said: “For the hills, temperatures going below zero is normal in winters. Cold wave is only declared for plains and these temperatures are not of cold wave like conditions”.

“The first half of December was warmer than usual, but winters have now finally set in,” he added.