Cold wave intensifies in North; affects air, railway traffic

Cold wave conditions intensified in most of north India on Friday, with plummeting temperatures and the blanket of fog disrupting normal life and air/rail traffic in many places.

Severe cold persisted in Uttar Pradesh, as the mercury plunged below five degrees in some places.

Sources said foggy conditions forced cancellation of a large number of trains, while flights were reported delayed at Lucknow’s Chaudhary Charan Singh International Airport as the fog reduced visibility to zero. The weather office said Lucknow shivered at five degree Celsius and temperatures sharply declined in other places.

So far 165 people have fallen victims to the cold wave conditions in UP.  Meanwhile in Kashmir, Kargil recorded the minimum temperature of -17.2 degrees Celsius, down from -16.6 degrees the previous night, a MeT department official said.

Leh, also in Ladakh region, recorded a minimum of -16.2 degrees Celsius, slightly down from the previous night’s -16.0 degrees Celsius.

Srinagar, the summer capital of Jammu and Kashmir, recorded a low of -4.2 degrees Celsius, same as the previous night, the official said.

She said Qazigund, the gateway town to Kashmir Valley in south, recorded a low of -5.0 degrees Celsius, slightly down from -4.6 degrees Celsius the previous night.

Mercury in Pahalgam resort in south Kashmir, which serves as a base-camp for the annual Amarnath yatra, registered a low of -6.4 degrees Celsius, a degree up from the previous night’s -7.4 degrees Celsius, she said. The minimum temperature in the famous ski-resort of Gulmarg settled at -3 degrees Celsius, slightly up from the previous night’s -3.6 degrees Celsius.