Northern states shiver as mercury plummets

Cold wave sweeping Punjab and Haryana for the past ten days continued unabated, with Adampur shivering at 1.5 degrees Celsius on Sunday.

Adampur in Punjab was the coldest place in the two states recording a bone chilling minimum temperature.

Severe cold swept Bathinda too, which recorded a minimum temperature of 2 degrees Celsius while Halwara's minimum settled at 2.2 deg C, a Meteorological Department official said here.

Amritsar (4.9 deg C),Ludhiana (3.7 deg C), Patiala (4.1 deg C), Pathankot (5.6 deg C), Faridkot (5 deg C) and Gurdaspur (4.2 deg C) tooexperienced a cold night.

In Haryana, Narnaul was the coldest place recording a low of 2.5 degrees Celsius, while Hisar and Karnal, too, were gripped by intense cold with both places recording respective minimums of 3.8 deg C and 4 deg C.

Rohtak (6.2 deg C), Bhiwani (6.5 deg C) and Ambala (5.4 deg C) also recorded below normal minimum temperatures.

Chandigarh, the common capital of the two states, recorded a low of 5.9 deg C.

The ongoing cold weather conditions are likely to continue in Haryana and Punjab over the next few days, the MeT official said.

He said fog reduced visibility at most places in the two states on Sunday morning including at Amritsar, Ludhiana, Patiala, Bathinda, Gurdaspur, Ferozepur, Hisar, Karnal, Ambala, Bhiwani and Sirsa.