Cold conditions continue in north India; snowfall in Srinagar

Several parts of north India continued to remain in the grip of cold conditions which delayed many trains and led to cancellation of 12 flights in Srinagar, which also received fresh snowfall today.
Delhi had a mainly clear sky, though moderate to dense fog during the morning hours delayed 85 north-bound trains and led to minor delays in flight operations. The MeT office has predicted light rains towards the afternoon tomorrow.
In Kashmir Valley, snowfall continued for the third consecutive day and Met office predicted more wet weather over the next few days. Tweleve flights were cancelled at Srinagar International Airport due to poor visibility. The snowfall also hit operations on the runway, an airport official said.

The depth of snow in Gulmarg, a star attraction for tourists during the winter, was two feet. The health resort of Pahalgam, which serves as a base camp for the Amarnath Yatra, received 3.5 cm of snow and was chilling at minus 1.6C.
The Snow and Avalanche Study Center in Chandigarh has issued a "medium danger" avalanche warning in Kupwara and Bandipora districts in areas above 3000 metres altitude.
"People are advised not to venture into avalanche-prone areas," the centre said.

In eastern India, people continued to struggle in Bihar and West Bengal under the continuing cold conditions at night.

Patna, Gaya, Bhagalpur and Purnea recorded a decline in the minimum temperatures by one or two degrees Celsius. The minimum temperature in Patna was 11.1 C and was expected to decline further by a few notches, a Met office bulletin said.
Bhagalpur district was the coldest in Bihar at 8C.
The night temperatures were appreciably above normal in parts of Sub-Himalayan West Bengal and Sikkim.
In Kolkata, the minimum temperature was 16C.
Night temperatures were below normal in parts of Madhya Pradesh, Gujarat, Konkan and Goa, Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu and of north interior Karnataka.
In the western part of the country, minimum temperatures continued to hover above normal levels in most parts of Punjab and Haryana even as fog affected air, rail and road traffic.

Ludhiana was coldest in the plains of Punjab and Haryana with a low of 5.6C, the Met office said, adding that there was a possibility of rains in the next 48 hours in the region.
In Rajasthan, night temperatures increased marginally. Alwar recorded a minimum temperature of 7.4C in the state, followed by Phalodi which recorded a low of 7.5C.
Two trains were cancelled and several were rescheduled due to fog in Rajasthan. Tweleve more were running late.
Churu, Sriganganagar, Bikaner, Jodhpur, Jaipur and Kota registered minimums of 8, 9, 9.3, 9.6 and 10.5 C, while other places in the state registered minimum temperatures between 11 and 13.4C.

Sundernagar recorded a high of 20.5 degrees Celsius,
while Solan and Una registered maximum temperatures of 18.5 degrees Celsius and 18.2 degrees Celsius respectively.
Keylong, Kalpa and Manali recorded a low of minus 1.7 degrees Celsius, minus 0.4 degrees Celsius and 0.6 degrees Celsius respectively.
Minimum temperatures rose sharply across Punjab and Haryana, where few a places received light to moderate rainfall.
Ambala in Haryana registered minimum temperature of 15.3 degrees Celsius, while Hisar recorded a low of 14.8 degrees Celsius. Amritsar in Punjab recorded a low of 15.6 degrees Celsius,while Ludhiana recorded a low of 15.2 degrees Celsius.
Chandigarh, Ambala, Panchkula, Mohali, Amritsar, Ludhiana are some of the places which received rains.

People of Bihar, including Patna, experienced a sunny day with all major cities witnessing an increase in maximum temperature by few notches from season's average.
The maximum temperature recorded in Patna was 29.4 degrees Celsius, while the minimum temperature was 11.4 degrees Celsius.
Purnea registered the highest maximum temperature of the state at 29.7 degrees Celsius followed by Bhagalpur and Gaya which recorded 29.5 and 28.3 degrees Celsius respectively.