New Delhi: Northern India woke up to a chilly morning on Friday as cold conditions intensified in the region where several areas were also affected by fog.
Foggy conditions greeted Delhi in the morning with the minimum temperature in the national capital settling two notches above normal at 10 degrees Celsius today.
The maximum was a notch below normal at 21.1 degrees.
There was no respite from the cold wave in Kashmir Valley and the Ladakh region with the mercury taking a tumble at most places even though the 40-day `Chillai-Kalan` period of the harshest winter, came to an end today.
The Valley and Ladakh experience intense cold conditions during `Chillai-Kalan`, which begins on December 21 and ends on January 31.
Srinagar recorded a minimum of -3.3 degrees, a shade lower than -3.4 degrees the previous night while Qazigund settled at -9.4 degrees Celsius, down from -7.4 degrees the night before.
The piercing cold wave continued unabated in Himachal Pradesh where no significant change was reported in the temperature.
Kalpa, Manali and Bhuntar shivered in the biting cold while Keylong and Bharmaur recorded lows of -11.8 and -10.6 degrees, respectively.
A heavy blanket of fog disrupted normal life and affected air, rail and road traffic in most parts of Punjab and Haryana with minimum temperatures also dipping slightly across the two neighbouring states.
Narnaul in Haryana recorded the lowest temperature for the two states at 4.5 degrees.
Meanwhile, trains passing through the two states were running hours behind schedule whereas flights from Chandigarh airport were either re-scheduled or cancelled as a result of the fog.
Isolated places in Uttar Pradesh were in the grip of the cold with Orai recording the lowest minimum in the state at 6 degrees.
Weather officials said that the weather would remain mainly dry over the state with dense to moderate fog likely to occur at many places.
