Plummeting mercury, coupled with thick fog cover, threw normal life out of gear in the entire North India on Monday, with 24 more people succumbing to the cold wave in various parts of the region.
While 20 more persons died in Uttar Pradesh, four persons lost their lives in Uttarakhand, officials said.
Delhi continued to shiver as mercury was below normal in the city by five notches to settle at 2.4 degrees, even as it rose from yesterday’s 1.9 degrees Celsius.
The maximum temperature too dipped to seven degrees below normal to settle at 13.4 degrees Celsius.
Met department forecasts a clear sky for Tuesday with fog in the morning.
UP death toll rises
In Uttar Pradesh, six people lost their lives in Ghazipur, three each in Azamgarh and Barabanki, two each in Fatehpur, Sultanpur and Chandauli and one each in Jaunpur and Siddhartnagar districts. With this, the death toll in the state this winter has risen to 175.
Muzaffarnagar which shivered at minus 0.7 degrees Celsius, continued to be the coldest place in the state.
Agra recorded 0.6 degrees Celsius, Najibabad (Bijnor) 1.0, Lucknow and Aligarh 1.4 each and Kheri 1.6 degrees Celsius, the Met department said.
The entire state was in the grip of biting cold as maximum temperatures too remained below normal by seven to 15 notches in most parts.
In Uttarakhand, four women succumbed to the chill in Haridwar, where the minimum temperature touched one degree Celsius. Tehri district was the coldest at 0.5 degrees Celsius followed by Mukteshwar at 0.4 and Pithoragarh at 0.2 degrees. Capital Dehradun also shivered at 1.3 degrees Celsius.
Union Territory of Chandigarh witnessed its coldest day in history, with the maximum temperature plunging to as low as 6.1 degrees Celsius, a record 15 notches below normal.
Hisar in Haryana was the coldest place in the region with a low of minus 0.8 degrees Celsius, two degrees below normal, followed by Bhiwani with 0.5 and Narnaul with 3 degrees. Minimum temperature in Amritsar in Punjab settles at a low of 1.8 degrees Celsius. Patiala and Ludhiana recorded minimums of 2.4 and 2.7 degrees.
The entire Kashmir Valley too continued to reel under intense cold with night temperatures hovering several degrees below freezing point, giving residents a tough time.
The minimum temperature recorded in Srinagar was minus 4.9 degrees Celsius, down by 0.3 notches from yesterday’s minus of 4.6 degrees Celsius, the Met office said.
Kargil town in frontier region of Ladakh was the coldest place in the state with a low of minus 16.4 degrees Celsius, while mercury in Gulmarg plunged further to minus 9.8 degrees Celsius from Sunday’s minus 9 degrees.
With temperatures remaining below the freezing point, the fringes of famous Dal Lake and other water bodies in Srinagar have seen a thin cover of ice during the night.
Himachal Pradesh capital Shimla shivered at sub-zero temperature with a low of minus 0.6 degrees.
Rajasthan continued to remain in the grip of severe cold, with Churu being the coldest place at minus 2.7 degrees Celsius followed by Karauli at zero degree.
Mount Abu and Pilani recorded minus 1.5 and minus 1.4 degrees Celsius respectively while Ganganagar, Vanasthali, Rajsamand, Bharatpur and Jaipur recorded 0.4, 0.8, 1.5, 1.9 and 2.3 degrees Celsius.
