Cold wave conditions, fog and ground frost would continue to rule the roost as a predominantly dry winter entrenches its presence over northwest, central and east India.
Weather-maker western disturbances have carried barely enough moisture to drop down as rain over the region; what is available on hand has been left to hang in the air in the form of dense to very dense fog.
RAIN DEFICIT
An India Meteorological Department (IMD) update said that the country as a whole has received 48 per cent less rain than normal thus far during this season.
But Japanese scientists have indicated a cooler-to-wet January and February for the country as the year turns around.
A weather warning issued by India Meteorological Department (IMD) said that visibility would reduce to 50 metre or less in dense to very dense fog over many parts of east Uttar Pradesh and Bihar on Thursday and Friday mornings.
Ground frost too has been forecast over parts of Punjab, Haryana, north Rajasthan and west Uttar Pradesh from Thursday even as the coldest areas shifted to central India overnight on Wednesday.
DENSE FOG
The last 24 hours ending on Wednesday morning saw varying dense cover over Uttar Pradesh, Haryana and northwest Madhya Pradesh, Punjab, Bihar, Delhi and sub-Himalayan West Bengal.
This is the typical swathe of geography that endures some of the worst dense fog incidents during the peak season from mid-December to January-end.
Minimum temperatures are below normal by 2 to 4 deg Celsius over many parts of Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand and Orissa.
Parts of east Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Vidarbha, north interior Karnataka and the Northeastern States also witnessed similar dip in mercury.
COLDEST PLACE
Providing further proof to the migration of the coldest areas towards the immediate south was the reporting of the lowest minimum of 2.0 deg Celsius at Mandla in Madhya Pradesh.
Meanwhile, an IMD outlook valid until Tuesday said that rain or thundershowers might break out at a few places over extreme south peninsular India.