Chill continues in hills; mercury rises in plains

New Delhi, Feb 2 (PTI) Several parts of Jammu andKashmir and Himachal Pradesh shivered under sub-zerotemperatures today even as mercury rose by a few notches inthe plains in the northern region.

Leh town in Ladakh region was the coldest place in Jammuand Kashmir settling at 12.4 degree Celsius below the freezingpoint, while Kargil registered minus 11.8 deg C.

Gulmarg skiing resort in north Kashmir and Pahalgam insouth Kashmir registered an identical low of minus 6 deg C.

The summer capital, Srinagar, witnessed a drop of 0.6 degreerecording a minimum temperature of minus 2.2 deg C.

Qazigund, the gateway town to Kashmir Valley, recorded alow of minus 3.1 deg C.

Higher reaches of Himachal Pradesh were freezing undersub-zero temperatures even as some other parts saw mercuryjumping by a few degrees.

Keylong in tribal Lahaul and Spiti district and Kalpa inKinnaur district recorded minimum temperatures of minus 12.7deg C and minus 0.5 deg C respectively.

Bhuntar, Sundernagar and Solan recorded respective lowsof 1.3, 2.6, and 2.8 deg C. Shimla recorded a minimumtemperature of 8.7 degree, nine degrees above normal, whilethe maximum in the Himachal capital was 18 deg C.

People in the national capital witnessed anotherpleasant and sunny day as the day temperature remained abovethe normal range.

The maximum temperature was recorded at 24.1 degreeCelsius, two degrees above normal; while the minimum settledat 8.6 degrees, a degree above normal and up from yesterday''slow of 8.1 degree Celsius.

Most parts of Punjab and Haryana too witnessed minimumtemperatures settling above the normal levels.

In Haryana, Ambala recorded a low of 9.2, one deg Cabove normal; while Gurgaon registered a minimum of 8.5 deg C,up by two notches. Karnal and Rohtak settled at a minimumtemperature of 7.6 deg C each.

In Punjab, Ludhiana registered a low of 8.6 deg C, uptwo notches; while the low at Patiala was 7.5 deg C. Amritsar,however, braved a cold night at 5.4 deg C.

The minimum temperature rose by two degrees above normalat Chandigarh to settle at 8.6 deg C.

Churu remained the coldest place in Rajasthan with aminimum temperature of six deg C followed by Sriganganagar at7.5 deg C. The state capital Jaipur recorded a low of 7.8degree Celsius.