Sunshine brings respite; cold deaths reach 123

There was a slight respite from cold wave conditions in North India on Friday with bright sunshine in some parts though nine more deaths due to the extreme weather were reported taking the nationwide death toll to 123. Over 40 train services have been affected by the thick fog.

As per a report from PTI, bright sunshine brought respite from the cold wave in Uttar Pradesh but nine more deaths due to cold and dense fog were reported in the past 24 hours in the state taking the toll to 83. Three people each died in Hardoi and Jaunpur, two in Azamgarh and one in Barabanki, reports said.

Sources in the Met office here said temperatures in Gorakhpur, Varanasi, Kanpur, Faizabad, Allahabad and Lucknow divisions remained below normal.

The lowest temperature of 3.5 degrees was recorded at Najibabad in Uttar Pradesh. A total of 24 people had succumbed to the extreme weather on Thursday, PTI added.

As many as 35 trains were running an hour late and two services were rescheduled in the capital where dense fog reduced visibility to 300 metres in the morning. An India Meteorological Department (IMD) official said such foggy conditions would continue till February 20.

The minimum temperature in the capital was recorded two notches above average at 6.1 degree Celsius.

In Rajasthan at least half a dozen trains were running four-to-10 hours late. The state saw a moderate dip in temperature with Chiru the coldest at 1.9 degree Celsius, Mount Abu at 4.4 degrees and state capital Jaipur recording 9.1 degrees.

In Punjab, Amritsar was shivering at a low of 0.4 degree -- four degrees below average, while Hisar in Haryana was coldest in the state at 1.5 degrees, followed by Rohtak at 1.8 degrees.
Chandigarh recorded a low of four degrees, two notches below normal.