North India froze: Delhi breaks 14-year cold record in November

(PTI) New Delhi, Ta. November 20, 2020, Friday

With the completion of Diwali festivities in the country, the cold has begun to take hold. The whole of northern India was frozen on Friday. In Delhi, the cold snap broke a 14-year record in November, while in Himachal Pradesh, the cold wave kept people below freezing. Rajasthan saw a significant drop in temperature. It rained in many places in Uttar Pradesh.

The national capital, Delhi, recorded a low of 7.5 degrees Celsius on Friday, the lowest in November in 14 years, the meteorological department said. The lowest minimum temperature recorded in Delhi in November was 7.3 degrees on November 29, 2006, said Kuldeep Srivastava, head of the regional meteorological department. Delhi is close to the first cold wave of the season, he added.

A cold wave is declared when the minimum temperature in the plains falls below 10 degrees and the minimum temperature stays below 4.5 degrees below normal for two consecutive days. Friday's measure is close to announcing a coldwave in Delhi. Coldwave could be declared if the minimum temperature stays below 10 degrees even on Saturday, Srivastava said.

Delhi recorded a minimum temperature of 11.5 degrees in November last year, 10.5 degrees in 2018 and 7.6 degrees in 2017. The lowest ever minimum temperature in Delhi was recorded on November 28, 1938 at 3.9 degrees Celsius.

Mahesh Palawat, an expert with private meteorological agency Skymet Weather, said cold winds blowing from the snow-capped mountains of the western Himalayas had caused mercury to fall in northern India and a similar trend is likely to continue on Saturday. The effects of Western Disturbances can be seen on November 23 in north-western India. This is likely to lower the mercury to some degree.

The night temperature also dropped significantly in Rajasthan. The mercury dropped to two degrees Celsius at Mount Abu, the only hill station in the state, the meteorological department added. The minimum temperature in Churu was 5.7 degrees, 6 degrees in Sikar, 7.1 degrees in Pilani, 9.8 degrees in Sriganganagar and 10 degrees in Bikaner. The temperature was reported. Temperatures are expected to drop further in the next 24 hours.

The cold wave continued on Friday in the Himalayan state of Himachal Pradesh. Tourists were stranded in the cold as mercury plummeted below zero in Kilong and Kalpa.

The administrative center of the tribal district of Lahaul and Spiti, Kilong, became the coldest place in the state on Friday, with temperatures dropping to minus five degrees, said Manmohan Singh, director of the Shimla Meteorological Center. The minimum temperature was recorded at minus 2 degrees in Kinnaur district of Kalpa.

Other tourist destinations in the state, Manali, Dalhousie and Kufri, recorded temperatures of 0.4 degrees, 3.2 degrees and 3.9 degrees Celsius, respectively, Singh said. Meanwhile, some parts of eastern Uttar Pradesh received light to moderate rains while western Uttar Pradesh remained dry. The state did not see any significant change in the average daytime temperature. The lowest temperature of 8 degrees Celsius was recorded in Muzaffarnagar in the state.

19 trapped in snowfall in Jammu and Kashmir rescued

Jammu, Dt

Security forces rescued 19 people, including a woman and a child, trapped in the snow at Pir Ki Gali on Mitchell Road, which connects Poonch district and Sopia in south Kashmir. Police and Army teams rescued 19 people in the Pir Ki Gali area late on Thursday night, said Poonch district SSP Ramesh Kumar Angral.

They were Sruthanik citizens and were going from Sopiyan to Poonch in two to three vehicles. Vehicles were stranded due to heavy snowfall on the Mughal route. The survivors were brought to an army camp in Pagans and given food and shelter. Police advised people not to travel on the Mughal route. The road was closed to vehicles due to snowfall.