Wednesday, January 5, 2011

Biting cold, fog to stay for now

LUCKNOW: The cold wave conditions continued unabated in UP on Tuesday. While Churk in Sonbhadra was the coldest in the state with 0.6 degrees Celsius, Agra was freezing at 1.2 degrees Celsius followed by Varanasi at 3 degrees Celsius and Lucknow at 4 degrees Celsius. Though minimum temperatures in most of the places were 3-6 degrees below normal, it was the drop in day temperatures and a foggy morning which were more uncomfortable for the people. The weatherman has predicted no significant change in the conditions on Wednesday. However, a warning of ground frost has been issued for the west UP districts.

State meteorological director J P Gupta said that the northwesterly winds coming from snow-clad mountains are responsible for the biting cold in the state. "No significant change in the temperatures is likely in the next few days. Foggy conditions would also continue," he predicted. On the other hand, while agency reports said that the severe cold wave claimed 13 lives in different parts of the state during the last 24 hours, taking the toll to 40 this winter, the state administration did not confirm any death. Instead, office of the relief commissioner denied deaths due to cold as reported in media on Monday.

In Lucknow, maximum temperature was 16.6 degrees Celsius, 6 degrees below normal. The minimum temperature was 4 degrees Celsius, slightly above the 3.6 degrees Celsius recorded on Monday. People woke up to thick dense fog, which kept the day temperatures down. While Agra recorded maximum temperature of 13.2 degrees Celsius, 9 degrees below normal, Bareilly recorded maximum temperature of 15.5 degrees, 7 degrees below normal. Similarly, maximum temperature in Varanasi was 15.4 degrees Celsius, 8 degrees below normal and Allahabad recorded 13.7 degrees Celsius, which was 7 degrees below normal.

However, in comparison to the Gangetic plains of UP, the temperatures were higher in hill stations like Shimla and Dehradun. While the maximum and minimum temperatures in Shimla, Himachal Pradesh, were 14.1 degrees Celsius and 4.6 degrees Celsius, respectively, the same for Dehradun in Uttarakhand were 19.1 degrees Celsius and 6.3 degrees Celsius, respectively. The plains of Rajasthan also reeled under cold wave conditions, with Jaipur recording 15.8 degrees Celsius maximum temperature and 2.1 minimum temperature. Delhi was no different with maximum and minimum temperatures of 14.7 degrees Celsius and 3.7 degrees Celsius, respectively.

TOI

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