New Delhi: Cold wave tightened its grip over most parts of North India claiming six more lives in the region, which wore a blanket of fog this morning disrupting normal life.
Five more persons were killed in Uttar Pradesh, taking toll during the last two days to 10 in the state, while one person died due to chill in Jammu and Kashmir.
Total number of deaths in UP due to cold conditions in the past three days touched ten today.
In Jammu, a beggar died due to cold condition in Samba district.
In the national capital, a blanket of fog reduced visibility while the minimum temperature was recorded 7.7 deg C, meteorological department said, forecasting a foggy morning for tomorrow. Maximum was recorded at 19.1 deg C, three notches below normal.
In Uttar Pradesh, two persons lost their lives in Bahraich district while one each was killed in Gonda, Kannauj and Farrukhabad since yesterday.
Maximum temperatures were below normal by 5 to 13 deg C in parts of the state.
Muzaffarnagar continued to be coldest in the state with a minimum temperature of 2 deg C.
Bihar was also hit by cold wave and thick fog, disrupting rail and air services. A number of trains, including the Delhi-Patna Rajdhani Express, was late by several hours, Railways officials said.
Landing and take off of commercial flights at Patna airport were affected due to poor visibility, airport director said.
Cold wave conditions prevailed in Odisha and in some parts of Madhya Pradesh Vidarbha and of Chhattisgarh.
Rajasthan shivered due to cold, as Chittorgarh remained the coldest place with a night temperature of 5 deg C.
Churu, Sriganganagar, Pilani and Jaipur recorded minimums of 5.1, 5.8, 6.1 and 6.4 deg C.
However, people of Kashmir got some respite from the intense cold as mercury rose across the Valley with night temperature in Srinagar going up by over five degrees.
Srinagar experienced a relatively warm night as the minimum temperature settled at 1.2 deg C, against season`s low of minus 4 yesterday.
Kargil district, the cold desert of Ladakh, was the coldest recorded place in the state where mercury settled at a low of minus 10 deg C.
In Punjab and Haryana, the minimum temperatures today soared upto three degrees even as foggy conditions prevailed in the region.
Amritsar was the coldest place in plains of the two states, with a low of 2.8 deg C, one notch below normal.
Piercing cold continued to sweep most parts of Himachal Pradesh even as mercury rose by few notches in the lower areas.
Keylong and Kalpa in tribal districts of Lahaul and Spiti and Kinnaur recorded minimum temperature minus 7.3 deg C and minus 1.8 deg C while Solan and Bhuntar groaned under biting cold wave conditions with mercury hovering around freezing point at 0.6 deg.
Manali, Sundernagar and Una recorded minimum temperature at 1.2, 3 to 5 deg C below normal while it ranged between 4 and 5 deg at Nahan, Shimla, Mandi and Palampur.
PTI
