Shimla/Chandigarh, December 28
Himachal Pradesh shivered under cold weather conditions as the night temperature in the tribal districts remained below freezing point with Keylong, the district headquarter of Lahual and Spiti, being cold at minus 10.7 degrees Celsius.
At Kalpa in Kinnaur district, the night temperature plummeted to minus 5.5 degrees while Una in lower hills was cold at 1.5 degrees, Bhuntar in Kullu district recorded 1.5 degrees Sundernagar 2.5, Mandi at 3.2 degrees and Dharamsala, headquarter of Kangra district was cold at 5.3 degrees. The minimum temperature in the capital town of Shimla dropped to 4.1 degrees while Nahan recorded nine degrees.
Meanwhile, dense fog engulfed Punjab and Haryana with Amritsar registering a minimum temperature of 1.6 degrees Celsius. Amritsar was coldest in the plains with a minimum temperature of 1.6 degrees Celsius, the Met Department said here today.
The night temperature at Amritsar has been steadily falling over the past one week. Visibility was zero in the morning in the city that remained under thick fog even in the afternoon, adversely hitting normal life.
Several parts of Punjab and Haryana battled with zero visibility. Adampur, Halwara and Bathinda in Punjab and Ambala, Sirsa and Karnal in Haryana witnessed zero visibility. While Ludhiana and Patiala in Punjab registered a minimum temperature of 6.5 and 7 degrees Celsius, respectively, Ambala in Haryana saw the minimum temperature nosediving to 3.5 degrees Celsius, a sharp fall of four degrees from the previous night.
Narnaul in Haryana registered minimum temperature of 4.1 degrees Celsius, down by two degrees.
The national capital, meanwhile, saw the minimum temperature rising by 0.7 degrees, settling at 7.2 degrees Celsius. This is unusually warm for the city compared to the previous years, it said.
The neighbouring state of Rajasthan also saw increase in the minimum temperature due to the western disturbances. The hill town of Mount Abu was coldest in the state at one1 degree Celsius, while Pilani at 5 degrees Celsius and Churu at 7 degrees Celsius saw an upward trend in the night temperatures.
— Agencies
