The chill on Saraswati puja day will continue for the next few days, the Met office has predicted.

The minimum temperature on Monday was 15.2 degrees Celsius, one degree below normal. It’s likely to drop further from Wednesday night.

“The sky has cleared following Saturday’s rain and the North Wind has again started blowing unhindered,” said G.C. Debnath, the director of the weather section at Regional Meteorological Centre, in Alipore.

“The cold and dry wind from the north has been dragging down the mercury since Sunday. The minimum temperature may drop further from Wednesday night,” Debnath added.

Met officials said the cold wave condition in Punjab, Haryana, Jammu and Kashmir, Rajasthan, Gujarat and Madhya Pradesh is likely to continue for another two-three days. The lowest minimum temperature (-1.6 degrees Celsius) in the north Indian plains on Monday was recorded in Adampur, Punjab.

In eastern India, the lowest minimum temperature (six degrees Celsius) was recorded in Daltongunj, Jharkhand.

“Jharkhand, too, is in the grip of a cold wave,” said a Met department official.

There is no fog warning for Calcutta and the rest of south Bengal. “But in north Bengal, visibility may be less than 500 metres at a few places because of fog,” the official added.