Lucknow, Jan 12 (IANS): As mercury levels plummet across Uttar Pradesh with dense fog and icy winds, several cities, including Lucknow, recorded the coldest night of this winter on Thursday.

The Meteorological (MeT) Department has predicted moderate to dense fog in morning hours over the next three days, particularly in eastern and central UP. Also, north westerly icy winds coming from the northern hill regions will continue to sweep the state, resulting in higher ‘chill factor’ till Sunday.

Strong icy winds that started lashing the state and the city on Wednesday continued to on Thursday.

These winds converted moisture left behind in the atmosphere by a cyclonic circulation into a dense fog in the morning hours, said Mohammad Danish, senior scientist at the MeT department.

The chill factor led to drop in day and night temperatures.

In Lucknow, ‘cold day’ conditions prevailed with maximum temperature falling to 15.3 degrees Celsius which is 5.4 units below normal. The city recorded its lowest minimum temperature of this winter so far, with mercury dropping to 6.5 degrees Celsius, 0.6 units below normal.

Agra had near-zero visibility, while it dropped to 25 metres in Lucknow and Rae Bareli. The visibility was 50 metres in Varanasi and 200 metres in Bahraich and Sultanpur.

Agra was the coldest in the state with minimum temperature at 4.5 degrees Celsius. In Kanpur city and Lakhimpur Kheri, minimum temperatures dropped to 5 degrees Celsius each, while in Shahjahanpur it was 5.7 degrees Celsius, Rae Bareli and Ghazipur 6.3 degrees Celsius each.