Minimum temp continues to be below normal in Punjab

Chandigarh: People in parts of Punjab, Haryana and Chandigarh woke up to a bright sunny day today after days of foggy weather but there was no let up in cold conditions with night temperatures hovering few notches below normal.

Light rain was also reported from a few places in the region. Chandigarh, which has seen its worst winter in several years, was greeted by a bright sun this morning. During the past fortnight, fog and bad weather conditions had paralysed the flight operations from the city, resulting in delays and cancellations, but now normalcy should return if weather holds good, an airport official said. An octogenarian Ved Prakash, who has been living in Chandigarh for the past 40 years, said that he had not seen such harsh winter in the City as was witnessed this year. "So many cold days at a stretch was uncommon here. I had never thought that even the day temperature would one day fall to around 6 (degrees Celsius)," said Prakash, who had taken out his school-going grand children to the park after remaining confined indoors for the past fortnight. While Chandigarh and many other towns of Punjab and Haryana were greeted by a bright sun shine, the overnight temperatures made the people shiver. It was freezing cold in Punjab`s Adampur, which recorded a minimum temperature of 0.6 deg C, down four notches. Bathinda, too, experienced a cold night at 1.2 deg C, three below normal. Amritsar (1.2 C), Ludhiana (3.9 C) and Patiala (3.6 C) also braved a cold night. Chandigarh recorded a bone-chilling low of 1.6 deg C, down three notches. Narnaul in Haryana recorded a low of 1.3 deg C, four below normal. Bhiwani and Hisar also reeled under biting cold recording respective below normal lows of 2.2 deg C and 2.6 deg C. Ambala, too, experienced the chill at a low of 3.7 deg C, down two degrees. PTI