New Delhi/Srinagar: It was yet another bone-chilling day across northern India yesterday, and the entire region remained blanketed under dense fog. Temperatures in many places in Jammu and Kashmir went below the freezing point, while cities like Amritsar and Karnal in the plains proved colder than hilly Shimla.
New Delhi saw a cold and foggy yesterday morning, with visibility dropping to less than 100 metres. The minimum temperature settled at 4.8 degrees Celsius. Sunday was the season’s coldest day at 2.6 degrees Celsius.
The Northern Railway said 78 trains coming into the capital were delayed while 20 trains departing from Delhi were rescheduled.
The intense cold continued across Jammu and Kashmir, as Srinagar saw the minimum temperature of 4.1 degrees Celsius below the freezing point, Gulmarg minus 3.4 and Pahalgam a whopping minus 7 degrees. Leh town in the Ladakh region recorded a minimum of minus 15.4 degrees Celsius, while Jammu saw a low of 4.3.
In Srinagar, frost made roads slippery, preventing motorists and two-wheel riders from venturing out, while surfaces of the city’s famed lakes froze, causing hardship to fishermen and boatmen.
In the plains of Punjab, Amritsar was the coldest city in the region with the minimum at the freezing point. Ludhiana and Patiala in Punjab saw lows of 4.1 and 3.4 degrees, respectively.
Chandigarh saw a low of three degrees Celsius, while in Haryana, Karnal (2.6), Ambala (3.7) and Hisar (3.1) were in the grip of an intense cold wave.
Dense fog continued to disrupt normal life in Punjab, Haryana and Chandigarh.
Hill stations across Himachal Pradesh Monday saw partly cloudy skies, but temperatures in most places remained at sub-zero levels. Shimla meteorological office director Manmohan Singh said there were chances of snowfall across the state from January 3.
IANS
