Chandigarh, December 15
A cold wave continued to sweep Punjab, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Jammu and Kashmir, Chandigarh, Delhi, Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh.
While the mercury further dipped in the plains, including Punjab and Haryana, and in the hilly region of J and K, in Uttar Pradesh the cold wave death toll went up to 27 today. One person died of cold in Pathankot.
Among the inhabitated areas, Srinagar remained the coldest place in northern India. In Srinagar, the mercury further dipped to minus 6.3° C last night whereas a day earlier, the night temperature recorded there was minus 5.3° C. Since 1998, last night was the coldest one in Srinagar. Some parts of the Dal Lake were seen frozen this morning.
However, severe wintry conditions are proving to be a boon to Ludhiana’s hosiery industry. As the ice-cold breeze continued, the sale of hosiery items and blankets has registered a significant upward trend. Reports from Ludhiana say that there was a straight 25 per cent increase in the sale of woollens in the past few days.
The cold winds have started damaging vegetable and other crops.
In Punjab, Amritsar and Jalandhar continued to shiver in sub-zero temperature. The minimum temperature recorded in Amritsar in the past 24 hours was minus 0.4° C. The minimum temperature recorded in Jalandhar was minus 0.5° C. However, the most surprising report came from Shimla. This town became warmer. In Shimla, the minimum temperature today rose to 6.3° C whereas it was 5.2° C yesterday. In
Himachal Pradesh, the Bhuntar and Sundernagar region continued to be bitterly cold.
