A severe cold wave prevailed on Thursday in North India where a thick fog cover has thrown normal life out of gear.
Fog enveloped the capital Delhi for the second day on Thursday reducing visibility below 50 metres in the morning hours and affecting air and rail traffic even as the mercury plummeted below five degree Celsius.
The minimum temperature was recorded at 4.8 degree Celsius, two degrees below normal and down from the previous day’s 5.6 degrees. On Wednesday, the maximum was recorded at 15.5 degree Celsius, five degrees below normal.
Fog descended on the capital early this morning delaying around ten flights. The normal visibility dropped below 50 metres. The fog cover lifted at around 10am.
Several trains were also running behind schedule due to fog in north India.
The Kashmir Valley also continued to reel under extreme cold as minimum temperatures across the region remained below freezing point.
Mercury in the summer capital Srinagar settled at a low of minus 1.4 degrees Celsius.
Srinagar city has witnessed a slight respite from the extreme cold weather since a spell of snowfall led to increase in the minimum temperature, though mercury has remained sub-zero.
The night temperature in the famous skiing resort of Gulmarg in north Kashmir plunged to minus 12.6 degrees Celsius, a drop of 0.2 degrees from Wednesday.
In the south Kashmir’s tourist resort of Pahalgam, the minimum temperature was recorded at minus 5.0 degrees Celsius, an increase of 7.2 degrees.
Leh town in remote Ladakh region recorded a minimum of minus 16.6 degrees Celsius, an increase of 3.3 degrees from Wednesday, the official said.
Cold and fog were back in Punjab and Haryana on Thursday where residents had been experiencing a temporary respite for a few days.
Narnaul in Haryana was the coldest in the two states registering a minimum temperature of 2 degrees Celsius, three degrees below normal, Met office said.
Minimum temperatures also dipped by three notches each at Hisar (4.1 deg C), Rohtak (4.5 deg C) and Bhiwani (4.6 deg C) while Karnal registered a low of 6.2 deg C.
The night temperature in Ambala, however, settled three notches above normal at 9.2 deg C.
In Punjab, Amritsar experienced a cold night at 5 deg C while Ludhiana recorded a below normal minimum at 6.3 deg C.
The minimum temperature at Adampur airbase in Jalandhar district plummeted to 4 degrees C from Wednesday’s 7.3 degrees.
Patiala’s low was recorded at 7.7 deg C while Chandigarh, where misty conditions prevailed in early morning, registered a low of 9.2 deg C.
A few places in the region including Chandigarh, Patiala, Mohali and Panchkula received light showers.
After a gap of a few days, fog was back at Karnal, Ambala and Rohtak in Haryana and at Amritsar, Ludhiana and Patiala in Punjab, the Met office said.
Cold wave continued unabated in Rajasthan with temperatures remaining well below the normal across the desert state.
Mercury at Churu settled at 2 degree Celsius while Sawaimadhopur recorded 2.8 degree Celsius, according to the MeT department here.
Vanasthali, Pilani, Jaipur, Sikar, Ajmer and Chittorgarh recorded minimum temperatures of 3, 3.8, 4.6, 4.8, 5.5 and 5.8 degree Celsius respectively.
