KATHMANDU: As winter is slowly nearing its peak, several places across the country have experienced increased chill today including Kathmandu Valley. The Valley's temperature dipped to 2.6 degrees Celsius today.

The latest details of the Meteorological Forecasting Division show that Kathmandu Valley's minimum temperature was recorded at 2.6 degrees Celsius and the maximum was measured at 17.6 degrees Celsius today against 3.5 minimum and 18 maximum on Monday.

Division meteorologist Raju Pradhananga informed that minimum temperature in the valley is predicted to be around 2.3 degrees Celsius for the next few days, indicating chilly days in store for the valley residents.

'We are in the midst of winter and more preventive measures are required to avoid cold induced illnesses. The month of January is the coldest, we are now advancing towards which,' he reminded.

Despite the fall in temperature, sunshine since the morning has given people some much needed respite.

Temperature in Jumla district in Karnali province, plummeted to -7.2 degrees Celsius today. Dipayal, Dadeldhura and Birendranagar recorded a minimum temperature of 2 degrees Celsius.

Biratnagar was the warmest today as its minimum temperature was 9.5 degrees Celsius and the maximum was 26.4 while Simara witnessed minimum temperature of 5 degrees Celsius and maximum 26.5 degrees Celsius.

Meanwhile, the Division, has issued weather forecast for the next three days through a press release today. The weather is expected to be partly cloudy in the eastern hilly region and mainly fair in the rest of the country today. Likewise, the forecast is partly to generally cloudy in the western region and partly cloudy in the eastern and central hilly regions tonight with the possibility of light snowfall at one or two places in the western high mountainous regions.

On Wednesday, the western and central parts of the country are expected to see generally partly cloudy to cloudy weather and eastern hilly region generally cloudy conditions.