No respite from cold; death toll rises to 135

There was no let up in the cold wave sweeping north India as dense fog today staged a comeback in several parts of the region, killing two more people in Uttar Pradesh, pushing the country-wide death toll this winter to 135.

Delhiites woke up to a foggy morning as the mercury settled to a low of 4.1 deg C, three notches below normal, the MeT office said. In Uttar Pradesh, two people were killed in Pratapgarh when their car rammed into a truck in dense fog this morning, officials said.

Minimum temperatures hovered below normal in most districts including Kanpur, Agra, Gorakhpur, Varanasi, Allahabad and Lucknow divisions, the weather office said.
Severe chill continued to sweep Punjab where Amritsar reeled at a low of minus 1.6 deg C, down by five notches.

Ludhiana, too, was bitterly cold recording a minimum temperature of 0.8 degrees, down by six notches. Patiala's low settled at three deg C, four below normal. In Haryana, Hisar once again remained the coldest zone registering a low of 0.7 deg C, five notches below normal. Narnaul shivered at 1.5 deg C while Karnal recorded a minimum of 2.4 degrees.

The cold wave in Kashmir continued unabated with Srinagar reeling at minus 4.7 deg C. The remote Leh district of Ladakh region recorded a low of minus 14.4 degrees. The minimum in Kargil district, also in the mountainous Ladakh region, settled at minus 12.8 deg C, and in scenic Gulmarg at minus 8.4 degrees Celsius.