Thick fog envelops North India as cold wave intensifies

Cold wave maintained its grip in north India, with temperatures settling below normal in most parts as fog enveloped the region disrupting air, rail and road traffic.
Delhiites woke up to a foggy morning today, as the minimum temperature settled down at 7.8 degree Celsius, one notch below normal, and the maximum temperature was recorded at 19.3 degree Celsius, one notch above normal.
Dense fog enveloped the IGI Airport disrupting the schedule of over 50 domestic and international flights today and causing inconvenience to passengers.
Kashmir Valley and Ladakh region experienced sub-zero temperatures as cold intensified and mercury plummeted several notches below the freezing point.

Srinagar recorded a minimum temperature of minus 4.2 degrees Celsius, over two degrees down from the previous night's minus 1.6 degrees Celsius, a MeT official said.
Intense cold wave continued unabated in most parts of Punjab, Haryana and Chandigarh with mercury plummeting up to three degrees below normal, adversely affecting normal life.

The minimum temperatures hovered between one to three degrees Celsius below normal in the plains of Punjab and Haryana, the MeT office said.
Several parts of Punjab and Haryana, including Hisar, Amritsar, Patiala, Bathinda, Narnaul, Ludhiana and Rohtak remained engulfed under a thick blanket of fog due to which several trains criss-crossing the region ran hours behind schedule due to low visibility.

Dense fog accompanied with biting cold wave conditions disrupted normal life in Rajasthan due to which eight trains of North Western Railways were running late by fifty minutes to about four hours in different parts of the state, an NWR PRO said.
Fog also caused traffic jams on Delhi-Jaipur, Kota-Jaipur and Jodhpur-Ajmer highways this morning.