The temperature in some parts of Haryana and Rajasthan touched zero degrees Celsius on Tuesday, PTI reported. Hisar and Narnaul recorded zero degrees and 0.3 degrees Celsius, and the minimum temperature in Amritsar was 0.4 degrees Celsius.

Rajasthan’s Bhilwara and Pilani registered 0.9 degrees, Sikar recorded 0.5 degrees, and the temperature in Churu touched 0.4 degrees Celsius.

“Severe cold wave was recorded in many parts of Punjab and Haryana and cold wave conditions were recorded in Delhi,” said Kuldeep Shrivastava, head of the regional weather forecasting centre, according to the Hindustan Times. A “cold day” is when the minimum temperature is less than 10 degrees Celsius, and the maximum temperature is at least 4.4 degrees Celsius below normal, while a “severe” cold day is when the maximum temperature is at least 6.5 notches below normal.

In a press release, the India Meteorological Department said that ground frost conditions were likely in Haryana, Uttarakhand, Punjab, northern Rajasthan, Himachal Pradesh, Chandigarh and Delhi during the next two days.

“Many parts of north-west India are reaching the freezing point,” Mahesh Palawat, vice president of climate change and meteorology at private forecaster Skymet Weather, said. “We are expecting December 31 to be the coldest.”

The weather department said that dense to very dense fog was expected in isolated pockets of Delhi, Punjab, Haryana and Chandigarh on Wednesday and Thursday.

Meanwhile, the IMD said that Delhi registered a minimum temperature of 3.6 degree Celsius amid a cold wave on Tuesday. The weather forecasting agency predicted that the temperature is likely to dip by about 2 degrees Celsius on Wednesday and Thursday in northwest and central India but the mercury would rise by 3-5 degrees from Friday for three days.

Weather scientists said that Delhi’s “feels like” temperature, which assesses how the human body perceives the temperature, was as low as 2 degrees Celsius. They said that it was primarily because of strong and chilly winds blowing at 15 to 20 kmph.

The Safdarjung Observatory, which provides representative weather data for Delhi, reported a maximum temperature of 18.1 degrees Celsius, two notches above normal. The minimum temperature at Delhi’s Ayanagar was 2.6 degrees Celsius, while it was 2.7 degrees in Ayanagar.

Delhi is also likely to get light rains and thundershowers as a fresh western disturbance was predicted to hit the Western Himalayan region around January 4.