New Delhi, Jan 8: Twentynine people succumbed to the intense cold wave in North India today as temperatures dropped to sub-zero levels at many places in the region.
Delhiites freezed under chilly winds and biting cold with the minimum temperature plunging to 3.3 degree Celsius. Though today's minimum is up by almost a degree from the previous day, icy winds forced people to stay indoors during morning hours.
Today's minimum is four degrees below the normal level at this time of the season, the MeT office said. The maximum temperature was recorded at 15.5 degrees celsius.
Kashmir Valley continued to reel under intense cold with temperatures plummeting further as Srinagar recorded the season's lowest of minus 5.5 degrees celsius.
The fringes of the famous Dal Lake and other water bodies here were frozen due to remarkable fall in night temperature over the past couple of days owing to clear skies.
With mercury dipping to sub-zero levels at some places, severe cold conditions prevailed in Uttar Pradesh claiming 24 more lives in the past 24 hours.
Reports reaching here said that five people each died of cold in Unnao and Barabanki, three each in Mahoba and Chitrakot, two each in Deoria, Lalitpur and Mau and one each in Firozabad and Hathras.
One person died in Muzzafarnagar in western Uttar Pradesh.
According to a MET office report, mercury dipped to sub-zero levels at a number of places with Kanpur recording minus 1.1 degree celsius, 8 less than normal, followed by Agra at minus 1.0 degrees and Ghazipur and Lucknow at minus 0.2 degrees celsius.
