With bone-chilling temperatures and a blinding layer of fog, northern parts of the country are reeling with cold wave conditions and these will stay put for the next 48 hours, the Indian Meteorological Department (IMD) said on Sunday.
Cold wave conditions are likely to abate over northwest India after this, as a new west disturbance is set to come on January 10, it added.
Parts of Delhi, Punjab, Haryana Chandigarh, Uttar Pradesh and Bihar will continue to see cold wave conditions for the next two days.
A red alert has been issued for Punjab, Haryana, Chandigarh, Delhi and Uttar Pradesh. An orange alert has been issued for Rajasthan and Bihar.
Delhi
In the last 24 hours, Delhi’s minimum temperature plummeted at 2.2 degrees, which was less than most places of the hilly Himachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand as well as some higher altitude places in Jammu and Kashmir. Parts of Delhi witnessed a bone-chilling 1.5 degrees Celsius on Saturday.
A severe cold wave brought the minimum temperature down to a numbing 1.5 degrees Celsius at the Ridge weather station in central Delhi.
At several places in Delhi, the maximum temperature was at least 7 notches below normal.
Punjab and Haryana
In Haryana and Punjab, the minimum temperatures have hovered below normal limits at most places and the maximum temperatures too have dropped sharply for the past over a week.
Hisar in Haryana reeled under severe chill, recording minimum temperatures of 1.4 degrees Celsius each.
Madhya Pradesh
The India Meteorological Department on Thursday issued an ‘orange alert’ for moderate to dense fog in six divisions and 15 districts in Madhya Pradesh.
The IMD also said two districts in the state experienced cold wave during the day, while four districts witnessed ‘severe cold’ and 12 districts, including capital Bhopal and commercial hub Indore, seeing ‘cold day’.
“Datia and Chhatarpur saw a cold wave, while Dhar, Khandwa, Chhindwara and Datia experienced severe cold day on Thursday. Bhopal, Indore, Gwalior, Guna, Sagar, Chhatarpur, Narisinghpur, Seoni, Umaria, Rewa, Ujjain and Ratlam had a cold day,” IMD Bhopal duty officer HS Pandey told PTI.
Rajasthan
Almost all parts of Rajasthan have been experiences severe cold with temperatures dipping below the freezing point for several consecutive days.
On Friday night, the minimum temperature was recorded at 0.0 degree Celsius in Churu and 0.6 degree Celsius in Pilani.
Fog persists, effects daily life
Due to fog conditions, over 480 trains have been affected, news agency PTI said. “Around 335 trains have been delayed, 88 cancelled, 31 diverted and 33 short terminated due to foggy weather,” a railway official said.
At least 25 flights were delayed on Sunday morning at the Indira Gandhi International Airport in Delhi.
According to the IMD, visibility levels dropped to zero meters at Bhatinda and Agra; 25 metres at Patiala, Chandigarh, Hissar, Alwar, Pilani, Ganganagar, Lucknow and Cooch Behar; 50 metres at Amritsar and Ludhiana, Ambala, Bhiwani, Palam (Delhi), Fursatganj, Varanasi, Meerut, Gaya and Dhubri. Rohtak in Haryana; Safdarjung, Ridge and Ayanagar in Delhi; Gorakhpur and Bahraich and Bareilly in Uttar Pradesh; Bhagalpur in Bihar; Bagdogra and Jalpaiguri in West Bengal; and several places in Assam, Meghalaya and Tripura recorded a visibility level of 200 metres.
With PTI inputs
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