Cold wave makes UP shiver, Bahraich coldest at 10° Celsius

LUCKNOW: As cold wave tightened its grip in the state, most cities on Thursday recorded their coldest day, with the maximum temperature plummeting to five to 13 degrees below normal. Coupled with dense fog, the bone-chilling weather threw normal life besides rail, road and air traffic out of gear.
No relief from piercing cold is likely till Saturday as the Met department issued a warning of severe weather conditions along with dense to very dense fog at several places in the state.East UP may also witness cold wave conditions due to drastic drop in minimum temperatures — the lowest level of mercury in the night.
State Met director J P Gupta said icy winds coming from snow-fed mountains of Himachal Pradesh are responsible for intense cold in UP. Bahraich was the coldest in the state — both during the day and night — with the maximum settling at 10 degrees Celsius, 13.1 units below normal. The minimum temperature was 3.6 degrees Celsius, 6.7 notches below normal.
Basti froze at 4.5 degrees Celsius
In terms of minimum temperature, the second coldest place was Basti at 4.5 degrees Celsius, followed by Aligarh 5.2 degrees Celsius, Muzaffarnagar 5.5 degrees Celsius and Agra 5.9 degrees Celsius. Most places recorded minimum temperatures 1-5 degrees below normal. During day-time, along with Bahriach, Najibabad in Bijnor was the coldest place, with the maximum temperature dropping to 10 degrees Celsius, 11.1 units below normal, followed by Bareilly 10.6 degrees Celsius, 11.4 units below normal and Hardoi 10.8 degrees Celsius, 11.1 notches below normal.
Minimum temperature in Kanpur was 7.6 degrees Celsius, Allahabad 9.6 degrees Celsius, Varanasi 8.7 degrees Celsius, Gorakhpur 5.4 degrees Celsius and Jhansi 6 degrees Celsius.