North India cold wave toll touches 42

Four more people perished overnight in the unrelenting cold wave in North India pushing the death count since the advent of winter to 42 as dense fog blanketed several places throwing road traffic haywire.

All the new fatalities occurred in Uttar Pradesh where 37 people had so far died to the winter chill, four in the industrial town Kanpur. Three deaths were reported in Punjab and Haryana where temperatures hovered below six degrees celsius at many places.

In Punjab, the mercury plunged to bone-chilling 0.4 degrees celsius, six degrees below normal, in Jalandhar while Amritsar reeled at 1.3 degrees. In Ludhiana, the minimum temperature dipped by five degrees to settle at 1.5 degrees as the cold wave tightened its grip in the state. Chandigarh had a low of 3.2 degrees celsius as fog enveloped Amritsar, Ambala and other places reducing visibility considerably leading to traffic snarl-ups.

In Haryana, minimum temperatures settled at three degrees celsius in Karnal and 4.6 degrees each in Ambala and Hissar. Himachal Pradesh remained in the grip of intense cold with tempertures nose diving to freezing point in Bhuntar and Sundernagar. Mercury hovered three degrees below normal in state capital Shimla which recorded a low of six degrees celsius.

Icy winds blew across Rajasthan where Churu shivered at zero degree celsius as night temperatures plunged at all places by several notches.

The tourist resort of Mount Abu recorded a minimum temperature of 0.4 degree celsius, down by eight degrees. The upper layer of Nakki lake froze but melted later in the day.

Ground frost occurred in Sriganganagar, which groaned at 1.5 degrees celsius, damaging the rabi crop. Jaipur had another cold night with mercury dipping to 4.5 degrees celsius.