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This story is from December 28, 2019

Winter chill grips north India, Srinagar coldest in a decade

Cold wave conditions continued unabated in several parts of north India on Friday with Delhi recording the season’s lowest temperature and the IMD predicting some relief in the region from December 31 onwards. The minimum temperature settled at 4.2°C in the Capital, three notches below normal. Twenty-one trains were delayed for a maximum of six hours in the north.
Winter chill grips north India, Srinagar coldest in a decade
A child breaks the ice layer formed on the surface of the Dal Lake due to severe cold (PTI photo)
NEW DELHI: Cold wave conditions continued unabated in several parts of north India on Friday with Delhi recording the season’s lowest temperature and the IMD predicting some relief in the region from December 31 onwards.
The minimum temperature settled at 4.2°C in the Capital, three notches below normal. Twenty-one trains were delayed for a maximum of six hours in the north.
In Jammu & Kashmir, with the mercury plummeting to -5.6°C late on Thursday, Srinagar shivered through the coldest night in the last 10 years.

The sudden fall in temperature led to the Dal Lake partially freezing on Friday with its upper layer covered in ice of medium thickness. A Met official said the dip in Thursday’s night temperature — the lowest in a decade — was due to a clear overnight sky.
“Night temperatures may drop further as the weather is likely to remain dry till January 1,” he added. Leh town in Ladakh region recorded lowest minimum temperature of -18°C on Thursday night while Pahalgam was coldest in Kashmir Valley at -12.7°C.
Kashmir is currently under the grip of the “Chillai-Kalan”, the 40-day harshest winter period when chances of snowfall are most frequent and maximum temperature drops considerably. The “Chillai-Kalan” began on December 21 and ends on January 31, but cold wave continues even after that in Kashmir.

Kufri, Manali, Solan, Bhuntar, Sundernagar and Kalpa shivered below sub-zero temperatures in Himachal Pradesh, a Met department official said, adding that Keylong recorded the lowest temperature in the state at -15°C.
The Met office has predicted snowfall in the middle and high hills of the state from December 31 to January 2. The minimum temperatures in Shimla and Dalhousie were 3.8 and 4°C, respectively. The highest temperature was recorded in Solan at 19°C.
Hisar in Haryana experienced the season’s coldest night as the minimum temperature dropped to 0.3°C, a Met official said. In Punjab, Bathinda was recorded as the coldest place with a low of 2.8°C. Amritsar shivered at 5°C. Chandigarh, the common capital of the two states, recorded 6.6°C.
Met officials said on Thursday, maximum temperature in Chandigarh dropped to 8.8°C, 12 notches below normal, a record in two decades. Parts of Rajasthan reeled under freezing cold with Fatehpur town in Sikar district recording a low of -3°C. The minimum temperature in Sikar was -0.8°C, a Met official said. In Uttarakhand, rainfall is expected to batter Dehradun on new year eve, said the IMD.
The temperature is likey to be between 8 to 16°C on December 31. In its daily weather report, the India Meteorological Department (IMD) said due to the persistence of cold northwesterly winds in the lower levels over northwest India, “cold day to severe cold day conditions” along with fog are likely over pockets of Punjab, Haryana, Chandigarh, Delhi, north Rajasthan and UP for next two days.
Dense fog is likelyover north MP, Bihar, Jharkhand, sub-Himalayan Bengal, Sikkim and Odisha for next two days and over northeast for next four-five days, it added. A fresh western disturbance is likely to affect western Himalayan region from December 30, Met department said. Hence, major parts of northwest and central India are likely to experience rainfall, with hailstorms at isolated places from December 31-January 1, it said.
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