North reels under intense cold; fog hits rail traffic

Intense cold wave conditions swept across large swathes of north India today with the weather remaining mostly dry even as fog disrupted rail traffic in a few areas.
There were little changes in minimum temperatures in the region. The lowest minimum temperature in the plains was 3.1 degrees Celsius recorded at Churu in Rajasthan.
Residents in the national capital woke up to another cold morning with fog in the early hours disrupting rail traffic with at least 59 north-bound trains, including premier trains like Rajdhani and Duronto Express, running late by several hours.
The MeT office here said the maximum in the city settled at 18.3 degrees Celsius while the minimum was recorded at 7.2 degrees Celsius, which is normal for this part of the season.

Early morning fog dissipated and the visibility, which was recorded at 500 meters at 8:30 AM, improved to 1500 meters at 11.30 AM and peaked to 1800 meters by 5.30 PM.
A Railway official said that almost all north-bound trains were running behind schedule. However, flight operations remained smooth, airport authorities said.

In Jammu and Kashmir, where cold wave conditions continued unabated owing to the dry weather, the weatherman predicted some respite next week with the possibility of isolated rains or snowfall.
Leh, in the frontier Ladakh region, was the coldest recorded place in the state with a minimum temperature of minus 16.2 degree Celsius.

Srinagar, the summer capital of the state, recorded a low of minus 4.8 degree Celsius.
The mercury in Pahalgam resort in south Kashmir, which serves as a base camp for the annual Amarnath yatra, registered a low of minus 6.6 degrees. Kargil, in Ladakh region, recorded a low of minus 16.0 degree Celsius.
The MeT office in Lucknow said cloudy skies and thick blanket of fog enveloped several places in Uttar Pradesh and Najibabad recorded the lowest temperature at 3.2 degree Celsius in the state.
Night temperatures fell in Varanasi, Allahabad and Moradabad divisions and changed little in the remaining divisions of the state.

The weather department predicted dense to very dense fog at a few places for the next 24 hours.