New Delhi, Feb 12 (IANS) The northern parts of the country are in for another cold spell with the weather office predicting "a fairly widespread to widespread" rain or snow over Jammu and Kashmir and Himachal Pradesh from Wednesday till Friday and over Uttarakhand for two days from Thursday.

It has warned of "very likely" thunderstorms, accompanied with isolated hailstorm, in Jammu and Kashmir and Himachal Pradesh on February 13 and 14.

There is also warning of "heavy rain or snow" at isolated places in the two states.

The met office also said that "fairly widespread to widespread, light to moderate rain or thundershowers" would occur over Punjab, Haryana and Chandigarh from Wednesday for the next two days. There is also warning of heavy rain at isolated places over Punjab and north Haryana on February 14.

Scattered to fairly widespread rain or thundershowers would occur over west Uttar Pradesh on February 14 and over entire Uttar Pradesh the next day. Isolated to scattered rain or thundershowers would occur over Rajasthan on Thursday.

"Thunderstorm accompanied with isolated hailstorm is very likely over Punjab, Haryana, north Rajasthan on February 13-14 and over Uttar Pradesh on February 14 and 15.

"Gusty winds of the order of 30-40 kmph are most likely to prevail over Punjab, Haryana, Chandigarh, Delhi/NCR, Uttar Pradesh and North-Rajasthan on February 14," a release from Ministry of Earth Sciences said.

It said the night temperatures are likely to increase by 2 to 3 degrees Celsius over northwest India during next three days and fall by a few degrees after February 15.

In Delhi and the National Capital Region, it said that cloudy conditions with light rain or thunderstorm likely to occur from night of February 13 for the next two days.

"Light rain/thundershowers accompanied with strong surface winds (30-40 kmph) and hailstorm at isolated places is most likely to occur over Delhi/NCR on February 14," it said.

--IANS
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