By Archana Sharma

Jaipur, Nov 17 (IANS): The desert state of Rajasthan has started feeling the winter chill due to snowfall in the hilly areas of the northern part of the country. Surprisingly, the hill stations in Himachal Pradesh are warmer than a few desert cities.

On Tuesday night, Fatehpur area in Sikar registered a temperature of 2.8 degrees Celsius against the popular hill station Shimla in Himachal Pradesh which had a temperature of 7 degrees Celsius.

This area was the coldest in Rajasthan.

Even Udaipur division has clouds hovering around due to which the mercury dipped bringing the winter chill around.

Radheshyam Sharma, Director, Meteorological Centre Jaipur, said: "Currently, a low pressure area is present in the Bay of Bengal and another low pressure area remains in the Arabian Sea. Apart from this, a Western Disturbance will also be effective over northwest India in the next 24 hours."

"Due to the effect of the above system, there is a strong possibility of change in the weather in south and south-east Rajasthan in the coming days. On November 18-19, there is a possibility of light to moderate rain with thunder, lightning and lightning in the districts of Udaipur, Kota, Jodhpur, Ajmer and Jaipur divisions.

"The effect of this system will continue on November 20 in the districts of Kota, Udaipur division. However, from November 21, the effect of this system will end and the weather will remain dry. Due to cloudy sky and rain throughout the day, the day's maximum temperature is likely to drop by three to 4 degrees Celsius and the night minimum temperature is likely to rise by 2-3 degrees Celsius," Sharma said.

On Tuesday night, many districts of Rajasthan including Bhilwara, Pilani, Sikar, Sawai Madhopur, Chittaurgarh, Udaipur, Churu, Nagaur, Baran and Hanumangarh districts registered temperature below 10 degrees Celsius.

Even in other districts , the minimum temperature was below 15 degrees Celsius.

People had out to pull out their winter outfits to prevent themselves from the cold breeze.

As per the Met officials, the temperature has been dipping due to the north-westerly winds and harsh winters shall be coming in the next few days.

On Tuesday night, Sikar was coldest with 5.2 degrees Celsius, followed by Bhilwara - 7.2 degrees; Pilani - 7.9; Chittaurgarh - 7.6; Churu - 6.5; Sawai Madhopur - 9.9 degrees, while Nagaur recorded 9.5 degrees Celsius.