An elderly woman wears a blanket to shield herself from the chilly winds in New Delhi on Monday. — PTI |
New Delhi, January 4
North India continued to shiver on Monday as the cold wave intensified with snowfall, rain and fog at many places. The toll in the current cold wave rose to 120 with 40 deaths in Uttar Pradesh, eight in Bihar and two in Haryana. UP alone accounts for 110 deaths.
All of North India experienced biting cold with nightlong snowfall in the upper reaches of Kashmir cutting off the Valley from the rest of the country for the second day today. The cold wave also swept across Himachal Pradesh where higher reaches experienced heavy snowfall.
Traffic on the 300-km Srinagar-Jammu national highway - the arterial link between Kashmir and the rest of the country - remained suspended after Srinagar and its adjoining areas experienced heavy snowfall. Poor visibility at Srinagar International Airport affected air operations this morning.
Fog descended on many places in Punjab and Haryana. Rains lashed many places including Amritsar, Ludhiana, Patiala, Jalandhar, Chandigarh, Ambala, Karnal, Hisar and Rohtak. There were reports of snowfall from Lahaul-Spiti, Chamba and high
peaks in Kullu and reports from Keylong, district headquarters of Lahaul-Spiti, said about one-and-a-half inch of snow accumulated on roads there.
The national capital - which had a clear sky - experienced icy winds from the snowcapped northern mountains though minimum temperature rose slightly. Rains lashed Delhi bringing the mercury down and giving Delhiites a respite from foggy weather.
The city witnessed about 1.6 mm of rainfall, as a result of which the maximum temperature dipped to 15.3°C, seven degrees below average. The minimum remained at 9.5°C - two degrees above average for this time of the season. There was mist in the morning with visibility coming down to 1,000 metre. However, there was no disruption in flight operations at Indira Gandhi International Airport.
Officials said runway visibility was over 2,000 metre and all flight operations were normal. However, there were some delays and disruptions in flight schedules because of the cascading effect of the past two days. Sixteen domestic flights - including arrivals and departures - were delayed and three were cancelled while eight international flights were delayed on Monday morning, officials said. On Saturday, over 200 domestic and international flights had been affected.
The Met Department’s forecast said there may be mist or shallow fog in the morning tomorrow and the maximum and minimum temperature could hover around 19 and seven degree Celsius, respectively.
Light showers in parts of Rajasthan led to a further dip in the mercury in the desert state. Meanwhile, the Met Department today said minimum temperatures were above normal by 2-4°C over many parts of Rajasthan, Gujarat, Haryana, Madhya Pradesh and Maharashtra and 2-4°C below normal over many parts of Orissa, north Andhra Pradesh and some parts of interior Karnataka and northeast states. It said that temperatures were “near normal” in remaining parts of the country, adding that the lowest minimum temperature of 1°C was recorded at Amritsar in Punjab.
Scattered to fairly widespread light to moderate rain or snow occurred over the Western Himalayan region and light rainfall over plains of northwest India. Mist or shallow fog in the morning is likely over parts of the Indo-Gangetic plains over the next one to two days.
The Met Office said cold wave conditions may occur over Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh and Orissa in the coming one to two days with minimum temperatures falling by 3-4°C over northwest and central India in the next two days. Day temperatures are likely to increase by 2-3°C over northwest and central India during the same period but dry weather conditions will prevail over most parts of the country.
