Mercury dips further in north India; -14.50C in Kargil

Cold wave tightened its grip on north India on Thursday as mercury dipped further with Kargil in Jammu and Kashmir recording a low of minus 14.5 degrees Celsius and Amritsar in Punjab too reeling under sub-zero temperature.

In the National capital, wintry conditions continued to prevail with minimum temperature settling at 7.2 degrees Celsius, a notch below the season’s average.

The maximum temperature was recorded at 19.2 degrees Celsius, two notches below normal.

Dense foggy conditions were witnessed in certain parts of the city which reduced the visibility to 200 meters at 8.30 AM and 700 meters at 11.30 AM. The visibility, however, improved to 3,000 meters at 2.30 PM.

In Jammu and Kashmir, mercury plummeted further due to light snowfall in higher reaches of Kashmir Valley yesterday and clear skies during the night.

Kargil in the frontier region of Ladakh was the coldest recorded place in the state with night temperature falling to minus 14.5 degrees Celsius, which was four notches below that of the previous night.

Srinagar, which recorded the coldest night of the season on December 21 at minus 5.6 degrees Celsius, witnessed a drop of almost four degrees in temperature against the previous night. The minimum temperature recorded in the summer capital was minus 4 degrees Celsius.

In Punjab, severe cold wave gripped Amritsar with the night temperature touching minus 0.2 degrees Celsius, four notches below normal limits. Ludhiana and Patiala recorded a low of 6 degrees Celsius and 7.3 degrees Celsius respectively.

Narnaul in Haryana once again turned out to be the coldest place in the state recording a low of 3.5 degrees Celsius. Hisar and Karnal also reeled under intense cold recording minimum temperatures of 5.5 degrees Celsius.

In Rajasthan, nine trains of North Western Railway were running late due to dense fog. Fog disrupted normal life in north-eastern parts of the state including in Dholpur, Alwar, Bharatpur, Sriganganagar and Hanumangarh as well.

Churu was the coldest in the state recording a low of 3.4 degrees Celsius.