As Srinagar recorded a low of minus 4.5 degrees Celsius on Friday, the cold appeared to tighten its grip on the Kashmir Valley.
Experiencing the season's coldest night last week at minus 4.9 deg. C, Srinagar shivered even as the drop in night-time temperatures resulted in partial freezing of the Dal Lake and other stagnant water bodies
Leh district of the Ladakh region recorded minus 16.6 deg. C, an increase of 0.4 degrees as compared to Thursday, MeT officials said.
Ladakh's Kargil town recorded a low of minus 15.2 deg. C.
In other areas, the skiing resort of Gulmarg in north Kashmir recorded a minimum of minus 7.5 deg. C, while the Pahalgam tourist resort in south Kashmir recorded a low of minus 7.4 deg. C.
Qazigund in south Kashmir recorded a minimum of minus 5.0 deg. C, while north Kashmir's Kupwara town settled at a low of minus 4.1 deg. C.
Churu shivers
A Jaipur report said Rajasthan continued to reel under cold conditions on Friday as Churu, with a minimum of 1.6 deg. C, underwent the coldest temperatures in the desert State.
While Sri Ganganagar plunged to 2 deg. C, Pilani recorded a low of 2.3 deg. C and Bikaner registered a minimum of 4.8 deg. C, the MeT department said here.
Vanasthali and Jaisalmer recorded minimum temperatures of 5.1 and 6.9 deg. C respectively.
Other places in the State also had a low in the range of 7.8 deg. C to 12 deg. C.
Bone-chilling weather
A Chandigarh report said that bone-chilling cold tightened its grip over Punjab and neighbouring Haryana with Amritsar recording the lowest temperature of minus 2.1 deg. C.
The mercury remained several notches below normal in most parts of both the States as prevailing cold conditions along with dense fog continued to hit normal life, throwing both rail and road traffic out of gear.
Important trains, including the Shatabdi Express, ran late by several hours.
Chandigarh recorded a low of 5.2 deg. C, down by one deg. C, the MeT department said here, adding that Hisar in Haryana registered a minimum of 2.7 deg. C, 3 notches below normal.
Ambala, Rohtak, Karnal and Narnaul recorded minimum temperatures of 4.9, 5.1, 5.2 and 2.5 deg. C respectively.
Ludhiana and Patiala recorded a minimum of 5.2 deg. C and 5 deg. C, two degrees below normal, they said, predicting that foggy weather would continue to prevail in various parts of the States even as days would mainly remain dry.
