Brrr! The CHILLIEST places across India

For some it's the return of the most beautiful days of the year. For many, every passing day is no less than winning a war.

Parts of North, Central, East and Northeast continue to shiver as mercury remains below normal level. Rediff.com takes a look at some of the coldest places where life has come to a standstill owing to sub-zero temperatures.

Kanpur, Uttar Pradesh

The people of Kanpur were left freezing as mercury levels plunged to -1.1 degrees C on Tuesday, 7.6 degrees below normal.

The story was largely the same in most other parts of Uttar Pradesh as 34 more people lost their lives on Wednesday, increasing the toll to 233. The mercury dipped to sub-zero in minimum five districts of the state.

Gorakhpur and Ghazipur with minus 1 deg C were the coldest places in the state on Wednesday, followed by Lucknow with minus 0.7 deg C.

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The national capital witnessed a chilly but sunny morning with the mercury rising a bit during the early hours on Wednesday.

There was a shallow fog in the morning hours and the minimum temperature was recorded at 4.4 degree Celsius, three degrees below normal and up from Tuesday's 3.3 deg C.

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It was freezing cold in Punjab's Adampur on Wednesday, which recorded a minimum temperature of 0.6 deg C, down four notches.

Bathinda, too, experienced a cold night at 1.2 deg C, three below normal.

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The severe cold in the region turned worse earlier in the week as mercury plunged to -3 degrees Celsius in Narnaul town of Haryana, the lowest in the last 15 years.

Icy winds continued their firm grip even as the bone-wracking chill claimed three more lives.

Freezing weather gave a tough time to people. Children missed schools, office goers wrapped themselves in thicker layers of woollens and daily wagers had to brave the cold, reports said.

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Rajasthan is also reeling under severe cold wave condition with Churu being the coldest place on Wednesday at 0.2 deg C.

While Sriganganagar recorded 1.7 deg C, Pilani and Vanasthali recorded minimum of 2.1 and 3.1 deg C on Wednesday.

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Uttarakhand experienced a let-up in biting cold on Wednesday with most of the places including Dehradun and those in the higher reaches registering a marginal rise in temperature.

Dehradun, where the mercury had dropped to -0.5 degrees C point Tuesday making it the coldest day of the season in the city in 68 years, recorded a minimum of 1.9 deg C on Wednesday.

The temperature in higher reaches also rose marginally on Wednesday with Tehri recording a minimum of 1.5 deg C, up from Tuesday's 0.5 deg C.

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After fresh snow last week, mercury dipped drastically in Himachal Pradesh with Keylong, the headquarters of Lahaul and Spiti district, recording the lowest -10.4 degrees Celsius on Sunday.

The higher reaches in Lahaul and Spiti, Kinnaur, Kullu and Chamba districts reeled under sub-zero temperatures in the beginning of the week.

Water pipes were frozen in many parts of Shimla on Wednesday as the mercury dipped to 1 degree celsius while Manali, Solan, Sundernagar and Bhuntar reeled under subzero temperature with minimum temperature at minus 3.0 degree, minus 2.4 degree, minus 1.4 degree and minus 1.2 degree respectively.

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Residents of Kashmir got some respite from the intense cold wave on Wednesday as the night temperature rose by five degrees even as some areas of the Valley received fresh snowfall.

The night temperature in Srinagar was recorded at minus 0.3 deg C, an increase of 5.2 degrees compared to Tuesday night which was the coldest of this winter, a MET official said.

Kargil town in frontier region of Ladakh was the coldest recorded place in the state where mercury settled at minus 15.8 degrees Celsius.

Many areas of the Valley including Srinagar received snowfall equivalent to 0.6 mm of rainfall. Qazigund, Pahalgam and Kupwara areas of the Valley also got snowfall.

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Madhya Pradesh also continued to feel the pinch with temperatures dipping to sub-zero levels in some regions on Wednesday.

Hill station Pachmarhi remained the coldest as mercury plunged below zero deg C with a minimum temperature of -2 deg C, while Datia and Umaria shivered at 0.3 deg C.

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Temperatures plunged to their lowest in decades in parts of Bihar in the ongoing week -- to the freezing point in Gopalganj and 1.1 degrees Celsius in state capital Patna, officials said on Wednesday.

The state has been reeling under intense cold wave conditions for the past five days, and low temperatures would continue for another two days, the weather office said.

In view of the prevailing cold wave, all public and private schools in Patna have been closed rill Jan 10, District Magistrate Sanjay Kumar Singh said, reports stated.

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Intense cold wave has swept all through West Bengal with mountain resort Darjeeling recording minimum temperature of -2 degrees Celsius on Tuesday.

Even capital Kolkata experienced its coldest day on Wednesday as mercury dipped to 9 degrees Celsius, five degrees below normal.

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Manipur's capital Imphal recorded the minimum temperature of 2.8 degrees Celsius on Tuesday, becoming the coldest place in Northeast this season.

Mercury plummeted to 2.4 degrees Celsius in Imphal a few days earlier.