Cold wave in Pb, Hry; claims a life in Ambala

The severe cold wave sweeping Haryana and Punjab claimed the life of a beggar in Ambala, while a thick blanket of fog in the morning affected normal life in Punjab, Haryana and Chandigarh.
Foggy conditions also disrupted flight operations at the Chandigarh International Airport, forcing delay and cancellation of some flights for three days now.
Poor visibility due to fog also caused delay of some trains passing through Punjab and Haryana.
An unidentified person, who the police believe to be a beggar, was suspected to have died due to the severe cold in Ambala.
His body was found near the Rambagh Shiv temple where a devotee called the police. Officials said the person was scantily dressed and might have died of severe cold.

Icy winds in Chandigarh forced many residents, especially the elderly, to restrict themselves indoors while labourers working in the open lit bonfires.

With 13 degrees Celsius being the maximum temperature, Chandigarh not only recorded one of its coldest days of the season so far.
According to MeT officials, during the day Chandigarh was colder than many places in Himachal including Shimla, which recorded a high of 13.9 degrees, Solan at 18.4 degrees and Dharamsala, which recorded a high of 15.2 degrees Celsius.
Chandigarh's night temperature, however, settled at 10.5 degrees Celsius, up four notches against normal.
Bathinda today was the coldest place in Punjab recording a minimum temperature of 3.8 degrees Celsius. Amritsar and Faridkot also experienced the cold weather recording respective minimum temperature of 6.2 degrees and 5.7 degrees. Ludhiana registered a low of 8.1 degrees Celsius.

Patiala, Adampur and Halwara also experienced a cold night recording respective lows of 7.6, 7.7 and 7.1 degrees Celsius.
In Haryana, Hisar was the coldest place recording a low of 4.9 degrees Celsius, down four notches against normal limit. Narnaul braved the chill at 4 degrees, two below normal while Bhiwani registered a low of 7.2 degrees Celsius.
The MeT here said that "cold wave conditions are likely to prevail at few places in Punjab and Haryana during the next two days while dense to very dense fog is likely at many places during next two days".
Fog reduced visibility in Chandigarh, Patiala, Jalandhar, Ludhiana, Amritsar, Moga, Bathinda, Ambala, Panchkula, Kurukshetra, Karnal, Hisar, Bhiwani, Rohtak and other places, MeT Department officials said here.