Cold Wave Grips North India, Delhi Freezes at 3.4 Degrees

New Delhi: With temperatures dipping at most places as icy winds swept the plains following heavy snowfall in the hill states over the past five days, cold wave conditions intensified over north India on Thursday.

It was a foggy Thursday morning in the national capital with the minimum temperature recorded at 3.4 degrees Celsius, four notches below the season's average.

"It will be a partly cloudy day with light fog through out," said an official from the India Meteorological Department(IMD).

The maximum temperature of the day was likely to hover around 17 degrees celsius.

Humidity at 8.30 a.m. was 100 per cent with the visibility recorded upto 800 metres.

Meanwhile, Jammu and Kashmir shivered at minus five degrees Celsius on Thursday while Leh in the Ladakh region frozen at minus 17.7 degrees overnight.

"Leh town recorded the coldest night of the season at minus 17.7 degrees Celsius and Kargil town with minus 15.6 degrees Thursday.

"Srinagar recorded minus 5 degrees Celsius today while Pahalgam and Gulmarg recorded minus 13 and minus 13.5 respectively as the night's lowest temperatures," an official of the weather office said.

Jammu city recorded 3.6 degrees, Katra 3, Batote minus 1, Bannihal minus 2.5 and Bhaderwah minus 5.6 as the minimum temperature.

All the water bodies in the Valley have frozen over and fisherman and boatmen are finding it difficult to negotiate their passage through the frozen lakes.

People across the Valley are struggling with frozen water pipes and lighting small fires to de-freeze them has now become a daily ritual.

Heavy snowfall was reported over the past one week in Badrinath, Gangotri, Kedarnath, Yamunotri, Rudraprayag, Tihri, Pauri and Chamoli.

Following heavy snowfall in many regions, an intense cold wave in Uttarakhand have forced people to stay indoors as the mercury plummeted below average in most places.

According to the regional Met office, the temperature at Munsiari, Nainital, Mussourie and Haridwar has gone below zero degree Celsius.

The temperature in the state capital Dehradun, for the first time in the season touched 2.9 degrees Celsius.

The weatherman has predicted that the condition would continue to be the same for the next one week.

Owing to the snowfall, eleven roads including the Dharasu-Badkot and Gangotri highways have been closed for traffic.

Temperature in Mussourie was recorded at 0.5 degrees celsius, Nainital (-1.5), Haridwar (-0.1), Pithoragarh (1.2), Roorkie (3.2) and Rishikesh (4.0).

In Rajasthan mercury continued to remain below freezing point at three places with Churu recording the lowest temperature at minus 1.9 degrees Celsius.

Mount Abu recorded a minimum temperature of minus 2 degrees Celsius while Sriganganagar, Bhilwara, Sikar, Alwar and Vanasthali registered night temperatures of minus 1.1, 0.0, 1, 1.2 and 2.1 degrees Celsius respectively, according to Met department here.

Intense cold conditions threw normal life out of gear in other areas where Chittorgarh, Dabok, Phalodi, Jaipur, Jodhpur and Ajmer registered minimum temperatures of 2.2, 2.5, 3.5, 4.1, 4.3 and 4.4 degrees Celsius respectively.

People in western areas of the state also shivered where the mercury settled at 7 degrees Celsius in Jaisalmer and 7.2 in Barmer.

Narnaul in Haryana was shivering at minus 0.5 degrees Celsius while Amritsar and Adampur in Punjab experience bone chilling cold conditions at 0.8 degrees Celsius and minus 0.1 degrees Celsius respectively.

Among other places in Haryana, Hisar and Karnal too were extremely cold, registering minimum temperature of 2.4 degrees Celsius and 2.6 degrees Celsius respectively, both four degrees below normal.

Ambala recorded a low of 5 degrees Celsius, down one notch against normal.

The residents in Union Territory of Chandigarh also reeled under piercing chill at a low of 3.7 degrees Celsius, one notch below normal.

Amritsar residents shivered with the low in the holy city on Thursday settling at 0.8 degrees Celsius, three notches below normal.Adampur was even colder at a low of minus 0.1 deg C.

A total of 26 trains were running late due to the dense fog in adjoining areas of Delhi and other parts of Northern India.

"Eight trains had to be reschedule while seven trains have been cancelled due to the fog," said an official statement.

(With PTI inputs)