Western disturbances might be something that the Indian government tends to complain about, but in this case no neighbouring state can do much about it. According to weather forecast company Skymet, two back-to-back western disturbances have brought down nighttime temperatures in North India, turning Delhi cold and bringing snowfall to the hills. Winter, as they say, is here.


The capital is seeing maximum temperatures of below 30°C, a full five degrees below normal for this time of the year. The maximum temperature at Safdarjung was recorded at 26.3°C, the second-lowest maximum for Delhi in October in the last decade, according to Skymet.

"The icy winds coupled with rain caused by the cyclonic circulation over Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh also led to a drop in minimum temperature that touched 15°C yesterday," the weather forecast company said.




And it's not just the capital. Winter appears to have come early to much of North India, with this week seeing the first bit of rain and even snowfall starting in the foothills of Punjab and Haryana and extending further up as well. Amritsar has seen a steep drop in minimums, recording just 12.2°C on Wednesday, and things are set to cool down even further.

Further up in the mountains, winter had already arrived.



 Meanwhile, the arrival of cold weather also means Delhiites are bracing themselves for the return of the capital's most favoured winter clothing item modeled by a familiar presence: