Icy winds sweep north

Cold weather conditions had
northern India shivering today with icy winds sweeping the region as the mercury registered big slides at several places.
Despite a sunny morning in Delhi, temperatures remained below normal levels in the city on a windy day.
The minimum in the national capital settled at 9.6 degrees Celsius, a notch below normal. The mercury had registered a low of 7.2 degrees in the city yesterday.
The maximum touched 21.5 degrees, three notches below normal.
The hilly Kashmir Valley and Ladakh were reeling under the cold wave and saw the mercury drop several degrees below freezing point.

Srinagar recorded a drop of over three degrees in the minimum, which settled at a low of -3.3 degrees as against 0.3 degrees the previous night.

The mercury at Pahalgam resort hit a low of -12.4 degrees, a drop of over eight degrees from the -4.2 degrees recorded the night before.
The minimum at Ladakh's Leh saw a decline of over four degrees to settle at -15.2 degrees. The nearby Kargil town recorded a low of -21.8 degrees.
Intense cold conditions prevailed in Punjab and Haryana even though bright sunshine greeted people across the two neighbouring states today.
Amritsar had the lowest minimum for the two states at 3.9 degrees, three notches below normal, as chilly winds blew across the region.

Meanwhile, light to moderate rainfall accompanied by thundershowers were reported in isolated parts of eastern Uttar Pradesh.
Nazibabad recorded the lowest minimum in the state at 4.4 degrees while moderate fog was also reported at a few places.
Icy, northerly winds continued to sweep the desert state of Rajasthan whose lone hill station of Mount Abu recorded a low of 2 degrees while the mercury further plummeted by one to four notches across Jaipur, Ajmer, Bikaner, Churu and Ganganagar districts.