By IANS
New Delhi : The raging cold wave that has kept over 400 million people in the northern plains shivering for the past one week, not only continued unabated Sunday but appeared to have spread the chill to the western parts of the country as well.
Noticeably, the mercury slipped to a minimum of 10.6 degrees Celsius in Mumbai, actually adding to the chill caused by the crash of the Sensex of the Bombay Stock Exchange earlier last week.
The sharp dip in the minimum temperature – a whopping six degrees Celsius below normal for this time of the year – caused Mumbaikars to flaunt their woollens with due reason.
The cold wave also had in its grip several parts of western Maharashtra, Marathawada, Vidarbha, and west Madhya Pradesh. These areas usually experience warm air by mid-January.
Punjab and Rajasthan also recorded a fall in the minimum temperatures.
The lowest temperature in the northern plains was minus 2.8 degrees Celsius, recorded at Adampur in Punjab.
The Met Office held out no hope for respite for those in the northern plains and forecast that the current chill would continue for the next two days till Tuesday.
Ground frost condition is also forecast for Rajasthan, Haryana and Punjab.
Meanwhile, the eastern parts of the country continued to receive rains, with eastern metropolis Kolkata recording 17.7 mm of rain.
The Met Office forecast widespread rainfall in many parts of Orissa, West
Bengal and northeastern states.
The following are the maximum and minimum temperatures and rainfall in major cities for the 24 hours till Sunday morning, with figures in brackets denoting deviations from the average.
City Maximum Temperature Minimum Temperature Rainfall
(C) (C) (mm)
Delhi 17.8 (-4) 5.9 (-2) Nil
Mumbai 26.6 (-4) 10.2 (-6) Nil
Chennai 31.1 (+2) 22.8 (+2) Nil
Kolkata 17.8 (-10) 15.3 (+1) 17.7
Ahmedabad 23.4 (-6) 7.4 (-6) Nil
Bangalore 31.0 (+3) 18.7 (+4) Nil
Bhopal 21.8 (-4) 8.0 (-3) Nil
Bhubaneswar 21.7 (-7) 16.9 (+1) 7.8
Chandigarh 16.0 (-5) 3.6 (-4) Nil
Dehradun 16.5 (-3) 2.4 (-5) Nil
Panaji 30.8 (0) 15.4 (-4) Nil
Guwahati 21.1 (-3) 13.0 (+3) 1.3
Hyderabad 29.5 (0) 12.7 (-2) Nil
Jaipur 19.2 (-4) 6.4 (-3) Nil
Lucknow 21.9 (-1) 5.6 (-3) Nil
Nagpur 27.4 (-2) 11.1 (-2) Nil
Patna 22.9 (-1) 11.8 (+2) Nil
Pune 25.7 (-4) 5.8 (-5) Nil
Srinagar 4.8 (0) -3.6 (-2) Nil
Thiruvananthapuram 32.6 (+2) 23.0 (+1) Nil