Intense cold kept its grip on north India Monday leaving two more persons dead in UP, freezing Leh town in Ladakh at minus 20.2 degrees and throwing train traffic out of gear.
Two persons, including an 85-year-old man, died due to cold in Uttar Pradesh (UP)’s Hardoi district yesterday, officials in Lucknow said. Cold conditions in the state have left 83 people dead this season.
The state capital Lucknow recorded a minimum of 5 degrees Celsius this morning, which was two notches below normal, while Varanasi recorded a low of 4 degree C, four notches below normal.
Kanpur shivered at 4.7 degree C, which was three notches below normal, while minimum temperature in Allahabad settled at 5.8, three degrees below normal. With no respite from the cold wave, all schools and colleges in Ghaziabad district were closed till January 16. Earlier the schools and intermediate colleges were scheduled to open on January 10. Meanwhile, there was no respite for Delhiites from the shivering cold today as icy winds blew at a speed of nine km per hour and mercury fell by a few notches.
The minimum temperature fell to 4.7 degree Celsius, two degrees below normal for this time, from yesterday’s five degrees. Yesterday was the coldest day in the past five years with the maximum sliding to 11 degrees.
Yesterday’s maximum was ten degrees below normal for this period of time.
A thin layer of fog covered the city early morning.
It could be another chilly morning tomorrow with the Weatherman predicting no respite for the citizens as icy winds are expected to blow across the city with a fog cover.
Low temperature coupled with icy winds from the northern mountains have made life difficult for the people and the capital has recorded at least three cold-related deaths since December 26.
According to MeT statistics, the record for the highest maximum for the month of January was 32.5 degree Celsius recorded on the 28th of 2004. The record minimum is -0.6 degree Celsius recorded on 16th of the month in 1935.
In the last decade, only last year that the minimum did not drop below five degree Celsius. In 2006, the minimum dropped to 0.2 degrees on January eight while two years later, the lowest minimum was 1.9 degrees on 2nd of the month.
The mean minimum for the month of January is 7.3 degree Celsius while the mean maximum is 21.1 degrees.
The cold wave intensified in Kashmir division, including in the Ladakh region, with Leh recording a night temperature of minus 20.2 degrees Celsius.
The mercury plunged by seven degrees in Leh town of Ladakh region last night to settle at a minimum of minus 20.2 degrees Celsius compared to yesterday’s low of minus 13 deg C, a MeT department official said.
He said the minimum temperature in nearby Kargil town also dipped by 2.8 degrees last night to settle at minus 15.8 degrees Celsius. In Srinagar, the summer capital of Jammu and Kashmir, the night temperature dipped by more than two degrees and settled at minus 2.2 degrees Celsius. The city had recorded minus 0.1 degrees C yesterday.
The famous hill resort of Pahalgam in south Kashmir was the coldest place in the Valley, recording a low of minus 11.7 degrees C, which was 2.7 degrees lower than yesterday.
Gulmarg, a skiing resort in north Kashmir, recorded a minimum temperature of minus 11 degrees C, which was 3.3 notches down from yesterday, the official said.
Meanwhile, the national capital also continued to chill as icy winds blew at a speed of nine km per hour and mercury fell by a few notches. The minimum temperature fell to 4.7 degree Celsius in Delhi, two degrees below normal for this time, from yesterday’s five degrees. Yesterday was the coldest day in the past five years with the maximum sliding to 11 degrees.
Fog also threw train traffic out of gear in most parts of Punjab and Haryana.
In Haryana, Naranaul was the coldest place with a low of 1.2 degrees Celsius, which was four notches below normal, the Met office said. Ludhiana had a low of 4.5 degrees Celsius, one notch below normal whereas Ambala settled at 4.7 degrees Celsius.
The desert state of Rajasthan also continued to shiver with Mount Abu recording a low of minus 4.2 degrees Celsius, while Churu was coldest in the plains with the minimum settling at 0.4 degrees Celsius. With dense fog continuing to envelop parts of North India, Railways today cancelled seven trains from here and rescheduled two of them as more than 65 trains were running late. Railways have already announced cancellation of about a dozen trains beginning January 20 till January 31 for traffic to normalise.
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