LUDHIANA: The district witnessed coldest night in December in the last two years, as night temperature dipped to 3.2 degrees Celsius. Meanwhile, met department predicts cold wave to continue on Saturday as well even as it forecasts dry condition in Ludhiana within the next few days.
According to the met department, the minimum (night) temperature on Friday was recorded at 3.2 degrees Celsius, which is three degrees less than normal. The data of met department suggests that lowest night temperature in December last year was 3.8 degrees Celsius, which was recorded on 11 December but in 2018, the lowest night temperature was 1.4 degrees that was recorded on December 22.
The night temperature, on the other hand, has been continuously witnessing a fall in the last few days and had dropped to season’s lowest at 5.5 degrees on Thursday before falling to present value.
Meanwhile, Ludhiana enjoyed a sunny day for most part. As a result, the maximum (day) temperature in Ludhiana was recorded at –degrees Celsius, which was –degrees –than normal. On Thursday, the day temperature was recorded at 14.7 degrees, which was six degrees less than normal.
A met department official at Chandigarh said cold wave is expected to persist on Saturday as well and things may improve on weather front after Sunday. He added that day temperature may improve, but night temperatures are expected to remain below normal for the next two days.
Met department official said there are chances of fog/mist in the morning during the last two days.
Met department website predicts night temperature to remain at 3 degrees Celsius till Saturday after which it is expected to rise to 6 degrees till Monday. It indicates that day temperature is expected to rise to 20 degrees by Monday.
The cold wave had residents grappling with chill. “Even as day weather was slightly better, as sun did come out and stayed for almost the whole day, but night was too cold. beyond tolerance levels. It was so cold that we didn’t even think of switching off the heating system for even a minute during the night. In the morning, we didn’t feel like getting up from bed,” said Ashok Kumar, a trader of Chandigarh road.