Delhi recorded a minimum temperature of 3.2 degrees Celsius, five notches below its normal temperature, on the intervening night of Sunday and Monday as a cold wave swept north Indian states, the India Meteorological Department said.

The lowest temperature in the region, -5.8 degrees Celsius, was recorded in Jammu and Kashmir’s Srinagar city, PTI reported. Rajasthan’s Churu town recorded -2.6 degrees Celsius and Punjab’s Amritsar city recorded -0.5 degrees Celsius.

The weather agency said East Rajasthan and two districts of Haryana were facing a severe cold wave.

The India Meteorological Department declares a cold wave when the minimum temperature is less than 10 degrees Celsius in the plains or 4.5 to 6.4 degrees Celsius below normal.

“Two back-to-back western disturbances and the resultant slowing down of cold northwesterly winds from Tuesday night will push the minimum temperature up,” said RK Jenmani, a senior scientist at the India Meteorological Department.

He added that East and West Rajasthan were badly impacted by the cold wave as the crops are likely to be damaged, the Hindustan Times reported.

Meanwhile, the weather agency said that the cold wave will prevail on Tuesday as northwesterly winds of about 15 kmph were likely to lower the temperature, the newspaper reported. It added that dense fog in morning hours could prevail in Uttarakhand, Punjab and Haryana along with ground frost conditions.