Cold wave, thick fog throw life out of gear in Pb, Har

Biting cold conditions coupled with thick blanket of fog affected transport services and threw normal life out of gear at many places in Punjab and Haryana today.
Bad weather conditions adversely hit flight operations from here while rail traffic was also affected due to the fog, officials said.
While at least two flights of private carriers to Delhi stood cancelled, most other flights were delayed.
Rail services were also hit with many trains running late or delayed by hours.
The Himalayan Queen Express train between Delhi and Kalka was running late by over 90 minutes while the Shatabdi Express train from New Delhi to Kalka via Chandigarh, which was to leave the national capital at 7:40 AM today, had been rescheduled to leave after a delay of about five hours due to thick fog at the originating station.

Among other trains, Howrah-Kalka Mail and Lucknow Chandigarh Sadbhavna Express were delayed by more than 10 hours and 7 hours respectively.

Barring Amritsar, Hisar and Narnaul, thick fog reduced visibility considerably early this morning at other places in the two states and Chandigarh, the MeT department said.
Meanwhile, fog reduced visibility to just 100 metres this morning affecting normal life. Chandigarh's low settled at 8.2 degree Celsius.
Amritsar in Punjab was the coldest place in the two states recording a bone-chilling low of 2.5 degree Celsius.
Ludhiana's low settled at 3.5 degrees while Patiala's minimum temperature was recorded at 6 degree Celsius.

Ambala recorded a low of 7.3 degree Celsius while Karnal's minimum settled at 7.4 degrees.
Hisar and Narnaul reeled under intense cold conditions recording respective below normal minimum temperatures of 4.1 and 3.5 degree Celsius.
The MeT department has forecast possibility of rain or thundershowers at a few places in Punjab and Haryana on Wednesday.