Piercing cold kills 2 more in UP, mercury climbs in Northwest

New Delhi, Jan 5 (UNI) The cold wave sweeping Delhi since the beginning of the new year abated marginally today with a three-notch rise in the mercury even as the continuing extreme cold conditions in Uttar Pradesh claimed two more lives overnight taking the nationwide deathcount due to cold to 96.

Uttar Pradesh continued to be in the grip of a cold wave where the toll mounted to 77, following two fresh fatalities from Kaushambi, which includes the death of a 10-year-old girl.

The Taj city remained the coldest for the third consecutive day at four degrees Celsius, which was three degrees below normal.

Lucknow witnessed a cold and dry weather with 5.3 degrees, whereas Kanpur, Bareilly, Gorakhpur were at 6.6, 7.4 and 5.8 degrees respectively.

Srinagar experienced light rains while it was heavily snowing on the upper reaches in the Kashmir valley since late last night, ending the long dry spell much to the delight of people. The night temperature was minus 0.2 degrees, Met department said.

People shivered under cold climatic conditions following fresh snowfall in higher reaches of Himachal Pradesh even as the mercury rose in the north-west plains following a cloudy weather.

High altitude areas in tribal district of Lahaul Spiti and Pangi and Bharmour areas in Chamba district of Himachal Pradesh had another spell of snowfall since last night.

In Punjab, the minimum rose at Ludhiana and Patiala but dipped at Amritsar, respectively recording 8.0 degrees, 6.1 degrees and 1.2 degrees. Adampur Airbase, near Jalandhar was cold at 4.8 degrees celsius, whereas Halwara Airbase, near Ludhiana, recorded a low of 6.2 degrees and Bhatinda eight degrees.

The night temperatures also increased in Haryana with Karnal showing 6.8 degrees, Ambala 5.4 degrees, Rohtak 6.2 degrees and Hissar 8.6 degrees celsius. The minimum increased to 3.5 degrees at Narnaul but hovered two degrees below normal.

Dense clouds enveloped Chandigarh and its adjoining areas in Punjab and Haryana in the morning recording a minimum temperature at 6.6 degrees.

The cold wave sweeping Delhi since the beginning of this week somewhat abated with a sharp rise in mercury to six degrees.

Clouds hovering over the skyline this morning led to a rise in the minimum temperature to six degrees, from three degrees yesterday.

Heavy rains are likely to occur at many places in Tamil Nadu, while rain or thundershowers are likely to occur at few places in Kerala and at isolated places in Haryana, Punjab, south coastal Andhra Pradesh, Rayalseema, south interior Karnataka and Andaman and Nicobar Islands.

Cold wave conditions prevailed at isolated places in coastal Andhra Pradesh. Night temperatures were appreciably below normal in some parts of east Uttar Pradesh, Punjab, east Rajastan, coastal Saurashtra and remaining parts of coastal Andhra Pradesh. They were below normal in some parts of south Chattisgarh, west Madhya Pradesh, Telangana, and Rayalseema.

Night temperatures were appreciably to markedly above normal in some parts of Nagaland, Manipur, Mizoram, Tripura, Haryana, north Madhya Maharashtra, south interior Karnataka, and were above normal in some parts of Assam, Meghalaya, Sub-Himalayan West Bengal and Sikkim, Jammu and Kashmir, Tamil Nadu and coastal Karnataka. They were normal over rest of the country.

Rain or snow have occurred at isolated places in Jammu and Kashmir. Heavy to very heavy rains have occurred at a few places in Tamil Nadu. Rain or thundershowers have occurred at isolated places in Rayalseema, south interior Karnataka and Andaman and Nicobar Islands.

UNI TEAM BDP AS1855