Sunny day in plains as hill towns still shiver (Roundup)
By IANSMonday, January 17, 2011
NEW DELHI - The plains of north India greeted another warm and sunny day Monday with schools across the region reopening after an extended winter vacation. However, the Himalayan towns continued to suffer under snow and freezing temperatures.
Thousands of schoolchildren once again packed their bags and tiffin boxes and left home in warm clothes Monday morning as schools resumed classes in Delhi and other states, including Punjab, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh and Bihar.
It was a long winter vacation for them as the unusually harsh winter this year forced authorities to close the schools for a longer period.
The schools were originally scheduled to reopen in the first week of January after the Christmas holidays. But the severe cold forced an extended holiday and children stayed home for another two weeks.
The worry now, both for school authorities and parents, is how to make up for the lost working days. The coming days are sure to put more pressure on the children too.
The day was sunny and warm with a cold wind blowing through the day in all major cities.
In Delhi, the new week began at a pleasant maximum temperature of 20.1 degrees Celsius while the minimum was 7.5 degrees.
The weather office said this trend will continue through the week. But the city can expect more windy days because of the continuing snow fall in upper Himalayas.
Cities in the neighbourhood, including Chandigarh and Agra, also recorded a warmer day.
However, there was no respite from the severe cold for the Himalayan towns in Jammu and Kashmir as well as in Himachal Pradesh.
The minimum temperature in Srinagar was minus 4.1 degrees against Sunday’s minus 3.7. In the hill station of Pahalgam it was minus 9.6 degrees while Gulmarg recorded a minimum of minus 13 degrees.
The valley also had heavy frost, causing the roads across the valley to become extremely slippery.
Snow-blocked roads disrupted road traffic in Himachal Pradesh too.
A government spokesperson said that no state-run bus has been plying in upper Shimla since Saturday evening as a large number of vehicles were stuck in snow between Kufri and Narkanda.
