Punjab, Haryana gripped by cold wave
By IANSMonday, January 4, 2010
CHANDIGARH - Punjab, Haryana and Chandigarh continued to reel under cold wave conditions Monday and many areas saw intermittent rainfall as well. The city of Amritsar was the coldest in the region with a minimum of 0.8 degrees Celsius.
Ludhiana and Patiala cities in Punjab were comparatively warmer with minimum temperatures recorded at 7.4 and 7.9 degrees Celsius respectively.
The minimum temperature in Chandigarh, the joint capital of Punjab and Haryana, was 8.6 degrees Celsius.
The region also received the year’s first rainfall Sunday.
“This rainfall has ended the dry spell of this season. In the last 24 hours, 5.6 mm rainfall was recorded in Chandigarh whereas this city received only 1.4 mm rainfall during the entire month of December,” an official of the meteorological department said here Monday.
“Overcast conditions are prevailing in most of this region and we have predicted isolated spells of rainfall to continue in the coming days. So far the temperature is stable but rainfall would certainly lead to a sharp decline in the night temperature,” he added.
In Haryana, the minimum temperature at Ambala was 7 degrees Celsius, Hisar was at 7.7 degrees and Karnal town recorded 8 degrees Celsius. But in Narnaul town, the minimum temperature dipped to 5 degrees Celsius Monday.
The Chandigarh education department has extended the winter break of primary classes of government schools till Jan 10 due to the cold wave.
