By IANS
New Delhi : Cold wave conditions in north India continued to affect normal life Tuesday with Srinagar recording a minimum of -2 degrees Celsius and the national capital 4.4 degrees Celsius, four degrees below normal.
Churu in Rajasthan recorded a minimum of 1.3 degrees Celsius (four degrees below normal), and in Bhuntar in Himachal Pradesh, the mercury plummeted to 2 degrees Celsius.
In the national capital, the temperature has not shown any change since Sunday. The minimum of 4.4 degrees Celsius Tuesday is the lowest in five years. The maximum for the day was 22 degrees Celsius, one degree below normal.
On Dec 18 last year, the minimum was 8 degrees Celsius. The minimum on Monday was 4.6 degrees Celsius.
“The cold spell will continue for a few more days and the minimum will hover around five degrees,” said an India Meteorological Department (IMD) official.
“Though the cold wave is unlikely to recede, the capital city will continue to witness mainly clear sky and shallow fog in the morning,” the official said.
The cold forced people to put on room heaters. Those who could, made the most of the sun or lit bonfires for warmth. Coffee and tea vendors had a field day with great demand for the piping hot drinks.
“I was selling nearly 100 cups of tea earlier, but for the last three days it has gone to over 160 cups a day. I get customers till 10 in the night,” said Harihar Yadav, a tea vendor in Munirka, south Delhi.
People in north Indian cities of Chandigarh, Amritsar and Patiala reached out for extra woollens as the mercury touched 3 degrees Celsius early Tuesday.
Lucknow in Uttar Pradesh and Dehradun in Uttarakhand saw a minimum of 5 degrees Celsius, somewhat higher than elsewhere in northern India but still two notches below the two cities’ normal for this time of the year.
Shimla registered 5 degrees, one degree above normal. Himachal Pradesh goes to the polls Wednesday in the second and last phase of elections to the state assembly.
Politicians, election officials and voters are praying that the weather does not turn rough when polling takes place for 65 assembly seats across the hill state of 6.3 million.
The weatherman has forecast snow and rain in the next day or two. A worried Election Commission has fixed Dec 22 as the next day for polling in the event balloting becomes an impossible affair Wednesday.
The Rajasthan capital city of Jaipur witnessed a minimum of 4 degrees Celsius, a whopping five degrees below normal.
It was 6 degrees in Hissar (Haryana) and Varanasi in Uttar Pradesh.
The temperature in the Kashmir Valley went below freezing point. In Srinagar, the minimum was -2 degrees Celsius and the maximum just about 9 degrees.