Biting cold in Punjab, Haryana; Chandigarh sees coldest night

 Chandigarh on Sunday saw the season's coldest morning with dense fog. Temperatures across the Punjab and Haryana were close to the freezing point at several places and there were chances of rain this week, weather officials said here.

"Chandigarh saw the coldest night at 2.9 degrees Celsius, a drastic fall from Saturday's 5.1 degrees," an official at the India Meteorological Department (IMD) told IANS.

Sunday was the 12th consecutive day of severe cold day in Chandigarh. The minimum was three notches below normal.

As per the IMD records, the city saw longest severe cold spell of 22 days in 2007.

Last year in December, the night temperature of Chandigarh had dipped to 3.4 degrees Celsius.

Dense fog left passengers in a lurch at the Chandigarh and Amritsar international airports with several flights delayed, officials said.

Likewise, several trains were running much behind schedule.

The ongoing longest cold wave conditions are likely to continue in Punjab and Haryana, Met department officials said.

Hisar and Narnaul towns in Haryana recorded minimum temperatures of 0.2 degrees and 1.5 degrees Celsius, respectively. Rohtak and Sirsa saw a low of 1.6 degrees and 1.8 degrees, respectively.

Minimum temperatures in most places were between 0.2 degrees to 5.6 degrees.

In Punjab, the Sikh holy city of Amritsar and industrial hub Ludhiana saw a low of 4.4 degrees each and Bathinda 4.8 degrees.

Adampur was the coldest in the state with a low of one degree.

In Punjab and Haryana, the prevailing maximum temperatures were three-10 notches below the normal.

The weather office said there are chances of rainfall in the region on the New Year day.

"The western disturbances are approaching the region from December 31. If these remain active for a few days, some of the places in Punjab and Haryana may see rain with chances of dense fog," it said.IANS