Chandigarh welcomes bright sun, chill remains

CHANDIGARH - After nearly 10 days of foggy and overcast conditions, residents of Chandigarh and neighbouring towns woke up to a sunny morning Tuesday. However, there was no respite from the cold as mercury remained below average.

Till 8 a.m., there was light to moderate fog in most parts of Punjab and Haryana and it has started lifting. Chandigarh and its surrounding areas saw a bright sun today, a Met department official said here Tuesday.

The mercury continues to remain below average. We are expecting similar conditions to prevail for the next 24 hours, he added.

Chandigarh airport was shut since Jan 5 due to adverse weather conditions. Rail traffic too was affected.

Many of the long distance trains were delayed yesterday due to thick fog in various areas of the region. But we are hoping that things will improve today and trains would move as per normal schedule, D.K. Meena, superintendent of Chandigarh railway station, told IANS Tuesday.

Amritsar, the Sikhs’ holy city in Punjab, was the coldest in this region Tuesday. It recorded a low of 1.4 degrees Celsius, three notches below normal.

In Ludhiana and Patiala cities of the state, the mercury settled respectively at 4.6 and 3.9 degrees Celsius.

The centrally administered territory of Chandigarh Tuesday recorded a low of 3.7 degrees, two degrees below average for this time of the season.

Narnaul town was the coldest in Haryana at 2 degrees Celsius.

Ambala, Karnal and Hisar towns also in Haryana recorded minimum temperatures of 5.8, 4 and 2.5 degrees Celsius Tuesday.