North shivers under chilly spell; Fog hits rail, air traffic

New Delhi, Jan 9: Northern India was today reeling under winter's chilly onslaught with the region also hit by dense fog that threw rail and flight schedules into disarray.

Residents in the national capital woke up to icy winds sweeping the city today even as fog delayed 52 trains. The maximum temperature was recorded four notches below the season's average at 16.3 degrees Celsius while the minimum settled a notch below normal at 6.8 degrees. The minimum yesterday was recorded at 7.2 degrees.

According to Northern Railways, 52 trains, almost all of them north-bound ones, including premier trains like Rajdhani and Duronto Express, were delayed by several hours due to adverse conditions. However, flight operations remained smooth at Delhi airport, officials said.

Jammu and Kashmir was grappling with the biting cold wave even as Kargil, in the frontier Ladakh region, continued to be the coldest recorded place in the state, registering the lowest temperature of the season so far at -17.2 degrees, down from the -16.6 degrees the night before.

Leh, also in the Ladakh region, recorded a minimum of -16.2 degrees, slightly down from the -16 degrees yesterday. Srinagar, the summer capital of J-K, recorded a low of -4.2 degrees, same as that on the previous night.

Weather officials have said that a fresh western disturbance is likely to affect the state from Jan. 12 which could result in isolated to scattered rainfall or thundershowers.

The weather would remain dry and cold over J-K till then, they added. Uttar Pradesh was hit by dense fog which affected the movement of air, train and vehicular traffic even as a cold wave swept the state. Fog formation was reported widely in UP and cold conditions prevailed at isolated areas in its eastern parts and at a few places in the western parts.

The mercury fell in the Kanpur and Jhansi divisions while the lowest temperature recorded in the state was 4.2 degrees at Hamirpur. Fog affected air traffic with at least four flights being delayed at the Amausi airport in Lucknow, a spokesman said. As per a railway spokesman, several trains were running behind schedule due to the fog.

PTI