NEW DELHI, Jan 8: Intense cold wave continued across north India today even as dense fog in large parts of the region affected normal life and disrupted road, rail and air traffic.
A thick blanket of fog covered several areas, including Delhi, affecting nearly 100 trains and over a dozen flights, officials said.
A 70-year-old man died yesterday reportedly due to biting cold conditions in Muzaffarnagar district of Uttar Pradesh, where cold wave and dense fog played havoc in many parts.
In the national capital, the maximum temperature settled six notches below the season’s average at 14.5 degrees Celsius while the minimum was recorded at 7.2 degrees.
Foggy conditions affected running of 56 north-bound trains including Rajdhani Expresses coming from Kolkata, Bhubaneswar, Ranchi and Dibrugarh. Fifteen flights were delayed at Delhi airport due to low visibility, while three services were delayed in Chandigarh.
Cold conditions persisted in Rajasthan with the mercury plummeting in several areas and with dense fog adding to the people’s woes by disrupting road and rail traffic. As many as 25 trains under the North-Western Railway were running late.
Churu recorded the lowest temperature in the state at 2 degrees Celsius, five notches below normal. In other parts of the State, mercury dropped by one to 6 degrees. People in the plains of Churu, Sikar, Pilani and Udaipur shivered under biting cold with the minimum settling below 4.5 degrees.
Dense fog enveloped State capital Jaipur as it recorded a minimum of 6.6 degrees, about two notches less than that of the previous night.
Cold wave also continued in Punjab and Haryana with dense fog affecting rail and air traffic to and from Chandigarh.
Amid bone-chilling weather conditions, Ludhiana was the coldest place in the region with a minimum temperature of 2.3 degrees Celsius, four notches below normal. Amritsar recorded the second lowest minimum at 2.4 degrees Celsius, while Patiala’s low settled at 6 degrees Celsius.
In Haryana, minimum temperatures in Ambala and Karnal stood at 6 and 7 degrees Celsius, respectively. Hisar’s low was recorded at 4.8 degrees Celsius. The minimum in the Union Territory of Chandigarh settled at 4.9 degrees Celsius.
Meanwhile, Himachal Pradesh and the Kashmir Valley continued to reel under biting cold as the weather shows no sign of improvement.
Residents of the Kashmir Valley shivered as the mercury dipped in several areas. Most water bodies, including the famous Dal Lake, were partially frozen. Srinagar, the summer capital of Jammu and Kashmir, recorded a minimum temperature of minus 4.2 degrees Celsius, down by almost two degrees from the previous night’s minus 2.5 degrees.
Kargil, in the frontier Ladakh region, registered a low of minus 16.6 degrees, slightly down from minus 16.0 the previous night. This was the coldest night of the season so far in Kargil. Leh recorded a minimum of minus 16.0 degrees Celsius, down by over five degrees from the previous night.
Qazigund, the gateway town to Kashmir Valley in south, recorded a low of minus 4.6 degrees Celsius. The mercury in Pahalgam resort in south Kashmir registered a low of minus 7.4 degrees, while it settled at 3.6 degrees Celsius in the famous ski-resort of Gulmarg.
Meanwhile, a snowstorm hit the Goripar area in Dharchula subdivision of Uttarakhand’s Pithoragarh district, blowing off the roofs of 11 houses and forcing evacuation of over 50 people. There was, however, no report of anybody being injured due to the weather phenomenon.
The snowstorm, which started early in the morning and ended by 2 P.M., blew away the roofs of five houses in Kultham, two each in Ugali and Phalyati and one house each in the Papri and Dhilam villages in Goripar in the Munsiyari sub-division of the district.
Intense cold wave conditions also continued unabated in Himachal Pradesh and minimum temperatures stayed below 5.0 degrees across the State. The mercury stayed 12 to 20 degrees below the freezing point in high altitude tribal areas.
While Keylong recorded a low of minus 9.3 degrees Celsius, Manali’s minimum stood at minus 1.2 degrees, followed by Kalpa minus 1.0, Solan 1.0, Una 2.7, Palampur 3.0, Shimla 3.6, and Dharamsala 3.8 degrees Celsius.
Thick ground frost occurred in higher hills and water pipes were frozen at many places while fog engulfed the lower hills, hampering vehicular traffic in the morning hours.
Day temperatures rose marginally in many places and stood at 18.4 degrees in Bhunter and Solan, followed by Nahan 17.2, Dharamsala 15.2, Shimla 15.8, and Manali 14.2 degrees Celsius. (PTI)
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