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NEW DELHI: As several parts of India reel under a cold spell, here’s worse news: expect the rest of the winter to be colder than usual. Experts looking at global climate models say there’s a good chance that February and March too will see below normal temperatures.

What seems to be loading the dice in favour of a cold winter is La Nina - a phenomenon better known in India for aiding good monsoon rains.

"Some dynamical climate models are showing a link between La Nina and below-normal temperatures in India in the next two months," said D S Pai, director of the long-range forecasting division of the Indian Meteorological Department in Pune. "This is not a common link but has been known to occur in the past."

Pai said La Nina conditions are expected to continue till March.

La Nina, which in Spanish means ’the girl’, is a condition when surface temperatures in the south Pacific Ocean fall below normal.

It is the opposite of the notorious El Nino (’the boy’) usually associated with failure of the monsoon in India. But like its counterpart, La Nina leads to changes in global air circulation patterns which drive weather extremes across the world.

M Rajeevan, senior scientist at the department of space’s National Atmospheric Research Laboratory, said the effect of La Nina in energizing the southwest monsoon during summers was well documented. "But La Nina can affect temperatures in India in winters though this link is seen much less frequently," he said.

After a mild December, temperatures across India plummeted rapidly in the second week of January. Since then, the western Himalayas have seen heavy and unusually widespread snowfall, the northern plains have been chilly while central and parts of south India have had record-breaking cold spells.

The sudden inset of cold is being partly attributed to an Arctic wind pattern that changed in January, sending spells of snow downwards into Europe and Asia. "Depending on its intensity, Eurasian snow can lead to snowfall in the Himalayas," said S K Dash, a climate scientist at IIT Delhi.

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"If a woman in Delhi is not safe in a five-star hotel with her parents, what will happen to a woman by herself in the streets?" This is what a young Indian-origin American girl asked Delhi Police in a complaint against a youth who allegedly molested her in a spa of a five-star hotel in south Delhi’s Vasant Vihar last Friday.

The accused Sanjay, a salon employee in the hotel, was arrested on Tuesday on her complaint and a case of outraging the modesty of woman was slapped against him, Chhaya Sharma, Deputy Commissioner of Police (South), told PTI.

The victim said in her complaint, "If action that is more stringent was taken in response to crimes against women, this would be a deterrent for men like these to perform a shameful act like this."

The victim alleged that the hotel authorities were not sensitive to her complaint and refused to approach police following which she herself decided to do so.

The hotel officials were not available for comment. Retelling the incident to end a "powerfully destructive cycle of silence which hurts women all around the world and is especially prevalent here in Delhi", she said she had checked into the hotel along with her parents on January 12.

The next day, she claimed, she along with her mother went to the Spa and while going for a head massage, she was taken to a separate room although there were five other available chairs in the room where her mother was.

 The victim claimed she was having a terrible headache and was exhausted and the therapist apparently pressed certain nerves so that would go to sleep.

When she woke up, she alleged, she found the salon employee molesting her and she immediately reported the matter to the lobby manager.

She alleged that they did not see any action taken by the hotel management instead they passed the blame on to Spa, saying it was an outsourced division.

The victim also claimed that she approached one of the top officials of the hotel and asked to report the incident to police but they told her that action was taken by firing the accused.

She also asked police to take action against the hotel for not taking any concrete legal action against the concerned employee.