Chill back in UP, cold prevails in Northwest India

New Delhi, Jan 13 (UNI) As western disturbances hovering over Uttar Pradesh for the last couple of days fizzled out, snowfall in upper reaches of Uttarakhand and Kashmir made people shiver across the state and in Northwest India and Delhi today.

After days of respite from the piercing cold, winter chill returned to haunt Uttar Pradesh.

UP Met director K P Kulshrestha said the western disturbance, under the influence of which temperatures were soaring ended, paving way for dry icy winds.

Taj City was the coldest recording 5.4 degrees while the temple town of Allahabad recorded 8.4 degrees, followed by Lucknow at 6.4 degrees.

In Srinagar, Drass recorded minus 20.5 degrees this morning while people in Kashmir and Kargil also experienced severe cold.

Kargil town experienced its coldest night after the minimum temperature dipped to minus 17.5 degrees.

Reports said two flights operated for the first time between Kargil and Srinagar after heavy snowfall last week.

More than 3000 passengers, including women, children and drivers spent a sleepless night in the freezing temperature on the 300-km-long Srinagar-Jammu national highway due to heavy traffic jam.

Many parts of Northwest India reeled under cold winds from the higher reaches of Himachal Pradesh which swept across the region.

Cold surface winds blew across the plains in Punjab where Amritsar with 1.5 degrees, turned out to be coldest place.

The minimum settled at 6.3 degrees at Ludhiana and 6.5 degrees at Patiala.

The night temperatures in Haryana rose slightly but this did not provide any respite from the cold wave conditions. Narnaul was the coldest place in the state, recording 4.0 degrees.

In Himachal Pradesh, piercing cold waves swept the tribal districts of Lahaul Spiti and Kinnaur and Pangi and Bharmour areas in Chamba district, where the minimum hovered below freezing point.

The minimum at Bhuntar in Kullu district was 2.2 degrees and Sundernagar 2.8 degrees.

Shimla basked in sunshine though the evenings were cold. The minimum in the capital town was 4.1 degrees.

Chandigarh recorded a minimum temperature of 6.5 degrees.

Delhi maintained the chill with the minimum temperature remaining at 7.4 degrees.

Rain or thundershowers are likely to occur at a few places in Lakshadweep and at isolated places in Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Meghalaya, Sub-Himalayan West Bengal and Sikkim and Nicobar.

Mainly dry weather will prevail over Nagaland, Manipur, Mizoram, Tripura, Gangetic West Bengal, Orissa, Jharkhand, Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, Haryana, Punjab, Rajasthan and Andaman.

Night temperatures were above normal in some parts of West Bengal, Sikkim, Gujarat, Madhya Maharashtra and Telangana. They were normal over the rest of the country.

Rain or thundershowers have occurred at isolated places in Assam, Meghalaya, and Sub-Himalayan West Bengal and Sikkim.

UNI Team PB RN1925