Gangotri Dham covered in white after heavy snowfall, mercury drops

GANGOTRI: The Gangotri Dham of Uttarakhand was shrouded in white after heavy snowfall on Wednesday late night. Even as the popular pilgrimage site, covered in snow, made for a pretty picture, the fresh burst of snow brought with it a biting chill sweeping the lower reaches of the Dham.

The snowfall and the chill dragged the mercury down further to -3 degrees Celsius.

The Met department said the temperature is likely to drop to as low as -9 degrees Celsius in a fresh spell of severe cold that is likely to grip the northern plains in the weekend and over the next week.

Already in the grip of a severe cold spell, there's more bad news in the offing for North India as vast swathes of the region are likely to experience a drop in temperatures to a minimum of -4 degrees Celsius and a maximum of 2 degrees Celsius in the plains, according to a weather expert.

According to a tweet by the weather expert, the icy, severe chill would be experienced between January 14 and 19 and is likely to peak from January 16 to 18.