The Hindu : New Delhi News : Fresh snow intensifies cold wave, 15 dead

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New Delhi

Fresh snow intensifies cold wave, 15 dead

Fog disrupts normal life in North India

PHOTO: PTI

Inside Shimla: Snow covered deodars after New Year’s first snowfall in the hill station on Sunday.

NEW DELHI: Moderate to heavy snowfall in Jammu and Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand intensified the cold wave conditions in North India on Sunday, claiming 15 more lives and prompting closure of schools even as thick fog disrupted road, train and air traffic, giving commuters a harrowing time. Twelve people succumbed to cold in Uttar Pradesh and three in Jammu and Kashmir, taking the death toll to 46. A goods train on Sunday morning hit a stationary one in Kanpur apparently due poor visibility caused by fog, seriously injuring one of the drivers. Traffic on the Delhi-Howrah stretch has been disrupted following the accident.

About one-and-a-half feet of snow was recorded in the high altitude areas of Kashmir Valley including Baltal and Drass on Srinagar-Leh national highway since last evening. The Gulmarg ski resort received fresh snow of four to five feet. Three people died of severe cold in Bharat, Gangyal and Gandhi Nagar localities of Jammu, police said. The minimum temperature in Srinagar was 0.2 degree Celsius.

The Trikuta hills in Jammu, housing the holy shrine of Mata Vaishnodevi, experienced its first snowfall of the season. However, the yatra to the shrine went on uninterrupted.

While the minimum temperatures were around or above normal in most of the places in the north, the “chill wind factor” and the snowfall in hill regions left the people shivering, Met officials said.

In Uttar Pradesh, six people lost their lives in Balrampur, two each were killed in Fatehpur and Basti and one each in Gonda and Shravasti. The State Government has directed district magistrates to ensure arrangement of bonfires and setting up of temporary shelters to protect people from cold. A thick blanket of fog marred visibility till late afternoon, adversely affecting rail and road traffic and leaving passengers stranded at bus and railway stations.

Higher reaches of Garhwal and Kumaon Himalayas received the season’s second snowfall and the plains in Uttarakhand were lashed by intermittent rains.

In Rajasthan, hill station of Mount Abu shivered with temperature touching one degree last night. - PTI

Staff Correspondent adds from Shimla:

All tourist resorts in Himachal including the capital town of Shimla received mild to moderate snowfall and rains on Sunday. Shimla wore a complete white shroud in the morning, the first snowfall of the year. But it vanished within no time since it was followed by rain.Tourists rushed to nearby peaks like Kufri, Mashobra and Naldera after the news of the long-awaited snowfall. Shimla recorded a minimum temperature of minus one degrees.

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