Cold conditions continued to sweep north India with Kargil shivering at -9.6°Celsius, while dense fog led to cancellation of at least 19 trains in the region on Thursday.
The northwestern plains, including Punjab, Haryana, Delhi and west Uttar Pradesh, were covered by dense fog on Thursday morning.
Fog also played spoilsport for the Railways in north India. A Northern Railway spokesperson said besides 19 trains being cancelled, 26 arrived late in Delhi, while seven others had to be rescheduled.
In Delhi, the minimum temperature settled at 7° Celsius.
“The maximum and minimum temperatures are expected to hover at 23° and 7° respectively,” the weatherman said.
In the Kashmir divison, including the Ladakh region, night temperatures again dipped and stayed below the freezing point at all stations, a Meteorological Department official in Srinagar said.
Fishermen cover their heads and part of their boats with blankets and straw as they wait to catch fish in the waters of the Anchar Lake in Srinagar on December 28, 2017.
Kashmir is currently under the grip of the Chillai Kalan — the 40-day harshest period of winter, when the possibility of snowfall is highest and temperatures drop considerably.
Srinagar, the summer capital of Jammu and Kashmir, recorded a minimum temperature of -2.7° Celsius on Wednesday night — a decrease of over three degrees from the 0.7° Celsius of Tuesday night.
In the famous ski resort of Gulmarg in north Kashmir, the temperature settled at a low of -4° Celsius.
In Kargil, in the Ladakh region, the temperature dipped nearly six degrees on Wednesday night as the mercury settled at a low of -9.6° Celsius from the -3.7° Celsius of Tuesday night, he said. Kargil was the coldest place in Jammu and Kashmir.
In Punjab, Adampur was the coldest place today with a minimum of 3.8° Celsius. Cold has maintained its grip over the neighbouring Haryana too, where Narnaul was the coldest place at 4.7° Celsius.
Fog enveloped many areas in Punjab and Haryana. However, the sky was clear in Chandigarh.
Rajasthan too reeled under intense cold conditions today with Sikar recording a minimum temperature of 3.5° Celsius. Alwar recorded a minimum of 4.2° Celsius, the Meteorological Department in Jaipur said.
The weather is expected to remain the same during the next 24 hours, it said.
Dense to very dense fog occurred at several places in Uttar Pradesh. Muzaffarnagar recorded the lowest temperature in the State at 4.6° Celsius.
