2 dead in UP, Northwest reels under cold wave

Agra/Chandigarh, Dec 7 (UNI) The cold wave has claimed two lives in the Taj city of Agra in Uttar Pradesh in the past 24 hours while northwest India reeled under chilly conditions.

An unidentified man and a train passenger died due to cold at Agra Cantt railway station.

Low clouds hung over the plains and cold surface winds blew across many places as the Sun played hide and seek during the day.

A dense fog enveloped many areas in the morning, reducing the visibility to nil at Adampur and upto 300 metres at Sarsawa, 400 metres at Hindon, 500 metres at Ambala and 600 metres at Halwara.

In Punjab, Amritsar recorded the minimum temperature of 6.7 degrees Celsius, Ludhiana and Patiala respectively recorded 7.4 degrees and 8.9 degrees .

The minimum temperatures also rose in Haryana with Hissar recording the minimum at 10.0 degrees, Rohtak 9.7 degrees, Ambala 5.2 and Narnaul 6.0 degrees.

Cold wave lashed in many areas of Himachal Pradesh, where the entire tribal belt and Kullu valley were reeling under its impact.

The minimum was recorded at 5.0 degrees at Manali in Kullu district. Bhuntar registered 3.6 degrees, Una 2.9 degrees and Sunderdnagar 4.1 degrees.

Shimla and its surrounding areas also reeled under cold climatic conditions with the minimum dipping to 5.4 degrees and Kalpa in tribal Kinnaur district recorded 0.6 degrees.

The minimum temperature at Chandigarh was 9.0 degrees following cloudy weather, but cold surface winds swept across the city during the day.

The air traffic between the Kashmir valley and the rest of the world remained cut off for the second consecutive day today as poor visibility at Srinagar airport forced cancellation of all incoming and outgoing flights.

The airport, which was enveloped by heavy fog cover with visibility level going down to zero since this morning.

Night temperatures were appreciably below normal in some parts of Marathwada and Vidarbha, and were below normal in some parts of Jammu and Kashmir, west Madhya Pradesh, south Madhya Maharashtra and interior Karnataka.

UNI