A cycle rickshaw passes by trucks on a cold and foggy morning in New Delhi yesterday.
IANS/New Delhi
It was a bone-chilling day across northern India yesterday, as Jammu and Kashmir’s Leh recorded its coldest temperature at minus 17 degrees Celsius and Delhi saw the season’s coldest day at 2.6 degrees.
While seven people died in Bihar, the toll due to the extreme cold in Uttar Pradesh rose to 125, officials said.
Dense fog in Delhi brought down visibility below 50m and delayed 78 trains and 73 flights. Road traffic was also hit due to the dense fog.
“It was literally impossible to drive my bike in the fog. I was unable to see beyond 10m. It’s a bone-chilling day,” said Ram Kishore. Yesterday’s maximum temperature was 18.3 degrees Celsius.
Leh town yesterday recorded its coldest overnight temperature at minus 17 degrees. Srinagar saw a low of minus 4.7 degrees, Jammu 3.8 degrees.
Kargil was the second coldest place in Jammu and Kashmir at minus 15.2 degrees, followed by Pahalgam (minus 7.6) and Gulmarg (minus 3.7).
Water bodies in and around Srinagar were frozen, and people could be seen burning fires around water taps to de-freeze them.
Highly slippery conditions prevented motorists from taking to the roads.
Rajasthan continued to shiver yesterday, as temperatures dipped up to five degrees below normal and dense fog affected both train and flight services.
Churu recorded a minimum temperature of 1.4 degrees, while Mount Abu, the only hill station in the desert state, shivered at 2.4 degrees.
Dense fog and cold wave conditions continued unabated in Uttar Pradesh. At least 25 people died since Saturday, taking the toll due to the extreme cold to 125.
Regional Met director J P Gupta said the state would be enveloped in dense fog on New Year’s Eve and foggy conditions would prevail for the next few days.
Agra was the coldest place in the state with 2.8 degrees Celsius followed by Shahjahanpur (3.2), Kanpur (3.6) and Lucknow (4.9).
