North shivers:
Icy winds today blew across North India, which groaned under an intense cold waveduring the last four days.Water taps froze in Kashmir and Rajasthan as the people huddled around bonfires and took recourse to heavy woollens to beat the cold wave sweeping the region.Icy winds lashed Rajasthan throwing normal life in disarray as mercury plunged to freezing point at Churu and Mount Abu, which registered lows of 0°c and Pilani 0.5 °c.Water pipes froze and burst at many places in the desert state where Jaipur, the state capital, reeled at 2.4°c, the lowest this season. Chandigarh was also 0°c,and the Taj city of Agra was the coldest place in U.P. recording a low of 3.2°c followed by Bareilly and Sultanpur (5.2°c).Delhi experienced the coldest day of the season with mercury plunging to a low of 2.6°c, four notches below normal.
In Kashmir valley, Dal Lake, a huge draw for tourists in Srinagar, had begun freezing due to intense cold.
The lake was first frozen completely in early '60s when the minimum temperature dipped to -12°c. The night temperature in Srinagar dipped to -5.6°c as icy winds swept the city this morning.
Water taps in several parts of the city and elsewhere in the valley froze owing to sharply dipping temperatures.
Severe Weather:The Soru river and other ponds in the Kargil district of Ladakh region was frozen as the minimum temperature dipped to-33°c while the maximum was also -10°c in Drass, the second coldest place in the world,and the minimum temperature dipped to -22°c in Kargil. The maximum was also -03°c.