W E A T H E R

Cold wave intensifies

CHANDIGARH, Dec 14 (UNI) — With cold wave further intensifying in most of northwest during the past 24 hours, Leh, the district headquarter town of northern-most Ladakh district, forward areas and entire tribal belt of Himachal Pradesh shivered under sub-zero temperatures of 8 to 12°C this morning.

Leh reported the low of - 12°C, while Thoise and adjoining areas - 10°C, making these the coldest places in the country, reports available here said.

With westerlies staying away from the sub-continent for the third day today, weathermen here held out not much change in the day and night temperatures for the next 48 hours. Mainly sunny weather has been forecast for Haryana, Himachal Pradesh and Punjab over the next 24 hours.

Srinagar, summer capital of Jammu and Kashmir saw the low hovering around -1°C, during the past 24 hours, while Jammu reported the minimum at 8.1, one degree above normal.

Shimla, reported the minimum at 8°C. This was four degrees above normal. However, Kalpa and Bhuntar reported the low of -1°C and 0.2°C, respectively, this morning.

The people in and around the border town of Amrtisar shivered as the minimum dipped to 3.4°C, two degrees below normal. Jalandhar and Ludhiana reported the lows of 4.6° C and 5.5°C respectively.

Ambala turned out to be the coldest place in Haryana this morning with minimum dipping to 4.3°C, three degrees below normal.

The National Capital Territory saw the minimum staying near normal at 7.6 (Safdarjung) and 7.4°C (Palam).

Chandigarh and adjoining areas saw the minimum hovering around 5.6°C, two degrees below normal this morning.