Excelsior Correspondent/PTI
JAMMU/NEW DELHI, Dec 28: North India today shivered under biting cold as the mercury dipped in several places including Delhi where it settled at 2.6 degree Celsius, the lowest in the past five year, with dense fog adding to the woes by paralysing road, rail and air traffic.
Jammu and Kashmir too continued to reel under intense cold with the mercury in the State’s summer capital Srinagar settling at minus 4.7 degree Celsius and Leh recording the season’s coldest night so far.
The minimum temperature in Srinagar, the summer capital of the State, appreciated a little to settle at minus 4.7 degree Celsius. Severe cold has led to the freezing of parts of many water bodies including the famous Dal Lake located in the heart of the city.
Srinagar had witnessed the lowest temperature of this season the previous night with the mercury plunging to minus 5.6 degree Celsius.
Leh, in the frontier Ladakh region, recorded a minimum temperature of minus 17.0 degree Celsius, a further drop from the previous night’s minus 16.4 degree Celsius. Kargil, with a low of minus 15.2 degree Celsius, was the second coldest place in the State after Leh.
At Delhi airport, as many as 73 flights were delayed, 17 diverted and six cancelled due to a thick blanket of fog in morning, while more than 80 trains were running late in the northern region, officials said.
The national capital, recorded the lowest temperature in the past five years with the mercury dipping to 2.6 degree Celsius, five notches below normal. The maximum stood at 18.3 degree Celsius, two notches below normal.
“This is the lowest temperature recorded in Delhi in the past five years. It could be the lowest in the past decade too but records for the same aren’t immediately available,” a MeT official said, adding Delhi’s all time low of 1.1 degrees was recorded on 26 December, 1945.
According to the MeT Department, respite from the winter chill is unlikely tomorrow as the minimum is predicted to stay around 3 degree Celsius in Delhi.
Meanwhile, intense cold wave, coupled with dense fog, disrupted normal life in most parts of Uttar Pradesh. Churk in eastern region of the State was the coldest place with a low of 0.5 degree Celsius.
The UP Government said that there was no fresh death reported in the State due to cold since Saturday. “There is no confirmation regarding death due to cold,” UP Principal Secretary (Information) Navneet Sehgal said.
According to the Lucknow MeT office, night temperatures fell appreciably in Varanasi, Gorakhpur, Faizabad and Allahabad divisions. In Mathura, minimum temperature was recorded at 1.5 degree Celsius.
In Uttar Pradesh, cold wave conditions and dense fog had claimed five lives in Barabanki district on Friday. While three persons including a home guard died of severe cold, two youths riding a motorcycle were killed after their bike hit a truck due to poor visibility in Jaidpur area of the district, officials had said yesterday.
Biting cold wave also continued unabated in Himachal Pradesh as the minimum temperatures hovered around freezing point in mid and lower hills while tribal areas and higher regions reeled under sub-zero temperature.
The high altitude tribal areas groaned under piercing cold conditions as the mercury stayed 15 to 22 degree Celsius below the freezing point while minimum temperature in Keylong was recorded at minus 10.4 degree Celsius.
Una in Shivalik foothills experienced the season’s coldest night with a minimum temperature of minus 3.2 degree Celsius, followed by Manali at minus 2.0. State capital Shimla recorded a minimum temperature of 1.9 degree and Dharamsala 4.2 degree Celsius.
Thick ground frost was seen in mid and higher hills while towns along the river banks remained engulfed in fog in the morning hours, reducing visibility and hampering vehicular traffic.
There was no significant change in maximum temperatures and Una recorded a high of 18.0 degree Celsius, followed by Sundernagar 17.3, Dharamsala 15.2 and Shimla 13.2 degrees.
Meanwhile, bone-chilling cold wave conditions continued to sweep across Punjab and Haryana with Chandigarh recording the coldest night of the season so far at 2.3 degree Celsius, five notches below normal.
In Haryana, Hisar shivered at 3.1 degrees, while Ambala’s minimum settled at 3.5 degrees. In Punjab, Amritsar, Ludhiana and Patiala, which were covered by fog in the morning, also continued to be under the grip of biting cold with the mercury dipping to 3.6, 3.7 and 3.6 degree Celsius, respectively.
In Rajasthan too, extreme cold conditions continued unabated with Churu recording the State’s lowest temperature at 1.4 degree Celsius.
There was no respite from the shivering icy winds even as a thick blanket of fog engulfed parts of the State, delaying movement of at least 13 trains.
Sriganganagar recording a minimum temperature of 2.4 degree Celsius while the mercury settled at 4.3 degree in Pilani, 4.4 degrees in Dabok and 6.5 degrees in Rajasthan capital Jaipur.
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