The weather system (WD) in the last 24 hours has already caused heavy snow and rain at a few places in the state including Pahalgam, Qazigund and Banihal.
But due to clearer days, snow will now begin to melt and add to the chill in the winds blowing in North India. The night temperatures could therefore fall significantly and lead to cold wave like conditions in the plains. Punjab, Haryana and west Uttar Pradesh could be the worst affected by this weather change as minimums would fall much below the normal average.
Cold wave is a weather condition when night temperatures drop by 5 degrees or more below normal.
The Indo-Gangatic plains where night temperatures are near normal at the moment may also observe a drop in minimums, like the northwest plains. Kanpur, Lucknow, Allahabad, Varanasi and Gorakhpur are some of the areas in the region where minimums are expected to drop. Allahabad recorded a minimum temperature of 13.4 degrees on Thursday morning, which is five notches above normal.