Cold weather sweeps North, West

Following a five-year low of 2.6 degree Celsius on Sunday, cold weather conditions in Delhi continued with the dense fog on Monday affecting air and rail traffic.

Services at the IGI airport were suspended intermittently for several hours, leaving several passengers stranded. However, the situation improved by Monday afternoon.

Five flights from Delhi and 12 Delhi-bound flights were cancelled due to bad weather, while five others had to be diverted to different cities because of poor visibility in the runways.  Thirty flights had to be rescheduled. According to an airport official, delays were recorded up to six hours.

Cold wave and fog also swept the rest of north and west, affecting normal life in several cities.

In Jammu & Kashmir, temperature dropped several degrees below freezing point, hitting water supply in many places. The cold wave across the valley and Ladakh region has also intensified over the last four days.

A MeT department official said Srinagar recorded a chilling low of minus 4.1 degrees Celsius, slightly above previous night’s 4.7 degrees. December 26 remains the coldest with -5.6 degree Celsius. 

Mercury in the ski resort of north Kashmir’s Gulmarg plummeted to a minimum of minus 3.7 degrees Celsius.

In Rajasthan, Jaipur recorded the coldest night of the season on Sunday night with temperatures dipping to 3.6 degree Celsius.  Mount Abu was the coldest in the state with 0.5 degree Celsius, while Churu district shivered at 0.6 degree Celsius.

There was no respite for Punjab and Haryana, with Amritsar freezing at zero degree.  
Meanwhile, Nagpur recorded its lowest temperature in 45 years with five degree Celsius, as the Vidarbha region of Maharashtra remains under the grip of a severe cold.