By IANS
New Delhi : People in Haryana, Delhi and north Rajasthan shivered less Friday as the minimum temperatures across the northern plains rose by two to three degrees Celsius.
The Met Office here said the severe cold wave that swept through north India the past few days was likely to abate, particularly in parts of Punjab over the next 24 hours.
The cold wave caused considerable damage to crops in Rajasthan and and left thousands of birds dead, forest department officials said in Jaipur.
At least 23 peacocks have been reported dead in a village in Ajmer district, some 160 km from state capital Jaipur, where mercury dipped to just about a degree of two above the freezing point.
Meanwhile, in Shimla the mercury fell to minus 4.4 degrees Celsius, the coldest for the month of January in the hill city in the past 15 years.
The Met Office has forecast isolated rain or snowfall over Jammu and Kashmir, Uttarakhand and Himachal Pradesh during the next 48 hours ending Sunday.
Ground frost conditions are also likely over some parts of Punjab during the next 24 hours ending Saturday.
Rain or thundershowers are likely at many places over coastal areas of Orissa and West Bengal during the next 48 hours.
The lowest minimum temperature of minus 1.5 degrees Celsius in the plains was recorded at Sarsawa in western Uttar Pradesh.
The following are the maximum and minimum temperatures and rainfall in major cities for the 24 hours till Friday morning, with figures in brackets denoting deviations from the average.
City Maximum Temperature Minimum Temperature Rainfall
(C) (C) (mm)
Delhi 20.6 (0) 5.6 (-2) Nil
Mumbai 27.5 (-4) 11.4 (-5) Nil
Chennai 30.2 (+1) 21.1 (0) Nil
Kolkata 22.7 (-4) 15.3 (+1) 25.8
Ahmedabad 25.1 (-4) 6.9 (-5) Nil
Bangalore 31.0 (+3) 18.5 (+4) Nil
Bhopal 21.0 (-5) 6.6 (-4) Nil
Bhubaneswar 30.8 (+2) 17.1 (+1) Nil
Chandigarh 17.6 (-2) 3.4 (-4) Nil
Dehradun 17.3 (-2) 4.8 (-2) Nil
Panaji 30.4 (-1) 17.5 (-2) Nil
Guwahati 17.3 (-7) 12.7 (+3) Nil
Hyderabad 30.2 (+1) 19.2 (+4) Nil
Jaipur 19.6 (-2) 9.4 (0) Nil
Lucknow 19.3 (-4) 7.9 (+1) Nil
Nagpur 26.7 (-2) 12.4 (-1) Nil
Patna 17.1 (-7) 11.8 (+2) Nil
Pune 28.9 (-2) 9.3 (-2) Nil
Srinagar 5.8 (+1) -5.5 (-3) Nil
Thiruvananthapuram 31.9 (+1) 22.7 (+1) Nil