The cold wave intensified in north India on Thursday with snowfall in higher reaches of Jammu and Kashmir and Uttarakhand, while light rains in the national capital also caused chill in the air.

Under the influence of a western disturbance, the city recorded light rains with strong winds for nearly two hours, said Kuldeep Srivastava, regional weather forecasting head of the Indian Meteorological Department (IMD).

"The temperature is likely to drop from December 14-15 and reach single digit," he said.

The minimum temperature in the city was 12.8 degrees Celsius while the maximum was 21.5 degrees, two notches below the average.

Meanwhile, the air quality index (AQI) of Delhi was 429, ''severe'' category, at 4 PM.

The relative humidity in Delhi oscillated from highest 89 per cent to lowest 75 per cent.

The high altitude areas of Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh including the famous ski resort of Gulmarg experienced moderate snowfall while the plains including the twin capital cities of Jammu and Srinagar were lashed by rains since Thursday afternoon.

 The weatherman has issued an orange warning for the twin Union Territories for Thursday and Friday, predicting moderate to heavy snowfall and rain under the influence of Western Disturbance which had hit the region on Wednesday.

The 270-km Jammu-Srinagar national highway was closed Thursday evening following moderate snowfall in and around Jawahar Tunnel, traffic department officials said.

About one feet of snow had accumulated at the Tunnel on the Kashmir side till 7 pm, forcing suspension of the vehicular traffic on the highway, the only all weather road linking Kashmir with rest ofthe country, the official said.  

Flight operations at the Srinagar airport also remained suspended for the sixth consecutive day on Thursday as all flights to and fro the Kashmir valley were cancelled due to poor visibility caused by fog, an official of the Airport Authority of India (AAI) said.

Due to overcast conditions, the night temperature in most parts of Jammu and Kashmir marked an increase and settled above season''s average but the day temperature fell several degrees below normal during this part of the season, the official said. 

Srinagar recorded a maximum of 5.9 degrees celsius, 3.6 notches below the season''s average and a minimum of minus 0.7degrees Celsius which is 0.3 above normal during this part of the season.