Mercury slides as rains continue in Northern India

New Delhi, Feb 16 (PTI) Temperatures today continuedto fall across the northern region as rains lashed the plains,including the states of Punjab and Haryana.

Delhiites experienced a minimum temperature of 12.3deg C, which is a degree above normal but over two degreesdown yesterday''s minimum of 14.6, while the maximum wasrecorded at 22.7 deg C.

The city recorded 14.5 mm of rainfall since lastmorning which had continued overnight.

Overnight rains in most parts of Punjab and Haryanaled to a dip in temperature in the region.

While Amritsar received 16.2 mm of rains, Bhiwani got15.6 mm of rains, Hisar 10.3 mm, Narnaul 8 mm, Ludhiana 7.4mm, Ambala 6.2 mm, Chandigarh 5.9 mm , Gurgaon 5 mm and Rohtak2.7 mm.

Patiala was the coldest place in the two states with alow of 9.3 deg C, which was one notch below normal.

Chandigarh and Amritsar settled at an identical low of10 deg C, one and three notches above normal respectively.

While Ludhiana settled at a low of 10.5 deg C, twonotches above normal, the minimum temperature in Gurgaon was11 deg C, three notches above normal.

Rohtak recorded a low of 11.1 deg C, three degreesabove normal while Ambala also registered 11.1 deg C, onenotch above normal.

Strong velocity winds accompanied by rain and sleetcontinued to lash Himachal Pradesh for the consecutive sixthday today.

Shimla and its surrounding areas remained engulfed bythick fog, hampering vehicular traffic.

The city recorded a minimum of 2.5 deg C and maximumof 7.8 deg C. Tribal areas of Lahaul and Pangi and RohtangPass received heavy snowfall, while it was moderate snowfallin Solang Nallah and Mari.

Keylong in Lahaul and Spiti district recorded 50-70 cmof snow, while Rohtang Pass was covered under 300 cm thicklayer of snow.

Meanwhile, the Snow and Avalanche Study Establishment(SASE) has issued a ''medium danger avalanche warning'' forpeople staying in snowbound areas above 2,500 metres inHimachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand.

A SASE release said that the areas covered by thewarning in Himachal Pradesh include Lahaul-Spiti, Shimla,Kinnaur, Chamba and Kullu districts.

The affected areas in Uttarakhand include Chamoli,Uttarkashi and Pithorgarh districts, it said.