Chandigarh, Jan. 13 -- Monday morning blues took an all-new meaning for city residents, who were left wanting to remain curled up in their blankets, as the minimum temperature dropped to the season's lowest of 3.3degC during the intervening night between Sunday and Monday. As per India Meteorological Department (IMD), similar conditions will persist for the next two or three days before it starts improving around the weekend. The lowest that the city had seen last season was on January 27, when the mercury had plunged to 6degC. This year, the city has already had three nights with temperatures below six degrees. But in 2024, the minimum had dropped even lower at 2.7degC on January 16. Monday's night temperature was 3.6 degrees below normal, Met officials said while adding that Chandigarh was colder than Shimla, where the minimum temperature on Monday was 8.8degC. The city, however, was better off than Dharmashala and Manali, which recorded a minimum of 2.6degC and 2.1degC, respectively.The persisting conditions also met the criteria for a coldwave, the second time this season after January 10. For this region, a cold wave is declared when the minimum drops below 10degC and is 4.5degC to 6.4degC below normal, or when the absolute value of the minimum temperature reaches 4degC or below. A severe cold wave is declared at 2degC or below. IMD Chandigarh director Surender Paul attributed the chilly nights to the cold North Westerly winds which are active in the region. As per Paul, similar conditions will continue till January 14. From January 15, he said, a fresh Western Disturbance (WD) will affect the region. While rain remains unlikely, it will change the wind pattern and bring warmer Easterly winds to the city. The maximum temperature, meanwhile, rose slightly from 14degC on Sunday to 14.3degC on Monday, 4.1degC below normal. This was lower than Shimla at 17.2degC, Dharamshala at 19.1degC and Manali at 16.2degC. In fact this was comparable to Srinagar, where the maximum temperature was 12.4degC, even as the minimum temperature had dropped to -2.4degC. The visibility also remained low - 100 metres at the Chandigarh airport and 150 metres at Sector 39 till 8.30 am. Though the sun showed up later in the day, improving the visibility to about 750 metres, there was barely any relief from the bone-biting cold. Four flights were cancelled at the Shaheed Bhagat Singh International Airport on Monday due to dense fog conditions. The cancelled flights, two arrivals and two departures, included IndiGo flight 6E7718 from Jaipur, 6E6448 from Delhi, 6E7719 to Jaipur and 6E2113 to Delhi. Several trains were also thrown off schedule due to poor visibility. At least 10 trains were behind schedule, while the Hoshiarpur Express was cancelled. The morning Kalka Shatabdi reached Chandigarh an hour and 21 minutes late, the evening service was delayed by nearly an hour, and the Jan Shatabdi Express was late by 45 minutes. Trains arriving from Uttar Pradesh and Bihar recorded some of the longest delays. Long-haul services from southern routes were no exception, with the Kerala Sampark Kranti Express arriving an hour and 21 minutes late and the Chandigarh-Karnataka Sampark Kranti running nearly two hours late....