Temperatures below freezing point were recorded in most places in Kashmir despite a slight increase in minimum temperature, the India Meteorological Department said on Wednesday, reported PTI.

“Under the influence of a Western Disturbance as a cyclonic circulation over north Pakistan and neighbourhood at lower tropospheric levels, isolated rainfall/snowfall very likely over Jammu and Kashmir, Ladakh, Gilgit-Baltistan and Himachal Pradesh on 22nd and 23rd December,” the afternoon bulletin of the weather department read.

There had been an improvement in the minimum temperatures on Tuesday night in most areas in the Valley, a weather department official told PTI.

Srinagar reported a low of minus 1.8 degrees Celsius, which is one degree above from the temperature recorded on the previous night. The city had registered minus six degrees Celsius on December 18 and 19 – the lowest temperature recorded this season.

In north Kashmir’s Baramulla district, the town of Gulmarg reported minus four degrees Celsius, a degree above from the temperature recorded on Monday, according to PTI.

Temperatures also dropped to 4.4 degrees Celsius in Delhi, making it colder than Himachal Pradesh’s Shimla hill station, which reported 5.4 degrees Celsius, Vice President Meteorology and Climate Change of private forecasting agency Skymet Weather Mahesh Palawat said in a tweet.

The Capital had 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.

Cold wave conditions were also recorded in parts of Odisha and in some areas of Madhya Pradesh, Punjab, east Rajasthan, west Uttar Pradesh, Telangana and the Vidarbha region.

Many areas of Telangana reported temperatures in single digits. The weather department had also issued an orange alert, indicating preparation for minimum temperatures, for several districts, including Mancherial, Peddapalli and Karimnagar.

The lowest minimum temperature of 3.5 degrees Celsius was reported on Tuesday morning from north Telangana’s Ginnedari village in Kumuram Bheem Asifabad district, reported The Indian Express.

Telangana’s villages Sirpur (U), Bela, and Arli (T) also recorded minimum temperatures under 4 degrees Celsius early on Tuesday.

In its Wednesday afternoon bulletin, the weather department also predicted light isolated to scattered rainfall or snowfall over the Western Himalayan Region and parts of Haryana and Punjab on December 24 and 25.

It also said that the influence of fresh Western Disturbance from December 26 could very likely lead to rainfall over northwest India. The “possibility of isolated heavy falls” was predicted over Kashmir and Himachal Pradesh on December 27.

A cold wave is declared when the minimum temperature is at least 4.4 degrees Celsius below normal in at least two stations of a meteorological subdivision.