New Delhi, Jan 1 (IANS): Bringing relief to people, the cold wave in north India including the Delhi NCR region seems to have abated for the moment with day temperatures rising on New Year's Day and touching almost 20 degrees Celsius in Delhi.

According to the India Meteorological Department, day temperatures have risen by 3-7 degrees Celsius over most parts of the northern plains of India, while Delhi has seen a rise of 5-6 degrees Celsius over Tuesday.

The IMD said that under the influence of warm moist easterlies, northern plains reported maximum temperatures around 17-20 degrees Celsius on Wednesday, while Delhi has reported usual average temperature - Safdarjung at 20.5 degrees Celsius and Palam at 19.6 degrees Celsius.

According to Skymet Weather, some isolated light rains are expected over Delhi-NCR on Thursday.

With this, the wind pattern has changed and has restricted the flow of chilly northwesterly winds. These winds are now blowing from the easterly direction, and are comparatively warm and humid in nature.

"With this, minimum temperatures are likely to rise across the national capital along with nearby areas of Noida, Gurugram and Faridabad. As a result, cold wave would abate and we do not expect to make a come back anytime soon as night temperatures would remain near normal," Skymet Weather said.

Meanwhile, cold day conditions would continue for another 24 hours but are expected to abate thereafter. Days would see bright sunshine, bringing huge relief for the capital which has been bearing the brunt of extreme cold weather for the last 18 consecutive days, it added.