Chandigarh records coldest day in history at 7.4 C

“Never before in Chandigarh’s history has there been such a cold day. Earlier on January 12,the maximum here recorded was 8 degrees,” a Met official here told PTI.

Commercial flights to and from this city remained suspended today due to fog.

Most places in the two states were covered by thick fog affecting the movement of traffic while some trains were also delayed.

Severe cold wave also swept Ambala in Haryana where the maximum temperature settled at 8.4 degrees,down eleven notches while the high at Karnal was 10.6 degrees,down eight degrees.

Hisar and Rohtak recorded maximums of 11.4 degrees and 12.7 degrees.

Amritsar in Punjab also shivered at a high of 8.3 degrees while the maximum at Ludhiana was 12 degrees.

The minimum temperatures in the region also settled a few notches below normal today.

Freezing cold gripped Narnaul in Haryana which recorded a low of 2.7 degrees Celsius,down two notches,the Met said here.

Bhiwani,too,experienced a cold night at 3.8 deg C,down two notches. Rohtak and Gurgaon also experienced minimums of 4.6 deg C and 5 deg C.

Ambala recorded a low of 5.3 deg C while the low at Karnal was 5 deg C,two below normal.

Ludhiana and Patiala recorded lows of 4.6 deg C and 3.8 deg C,both down by two notches.

The maximum temperatures in the region have been settling at 3 to 10 notches below normal for the past few days.

The forecast says cold wave conditions are likely to continue in the two states and Chandigarh until Friday.

“People can expect some relief from the severe cold by Saturday… there is nothing unusual in the current spell of cold as in previous years too such conditions had persisted around this time,” Chandigarh’s Met Department Acting Director H L Syal said.