Chandigarh, February 8
It was biting cold in the city today with the day temperature dropping to 15.4 degrees, seven degrees below normal.
Never in the past decade has the city recorded such low day temperature in February. In 1999, the day temperature had fallen to 16 degrees on February 9, said Chattar Singh Malik, director, Met, Chandigarh, adding: “Today’s maximum temperature is quite low. Only once has it dropped so low in the past 10 years. Again in 2000, it had fallen to 16 degrees on February 6; never did it fall to 15.4 degrees.”
Today’s drop in the mercury brought back the chill which had abated a little yesterday as the maximum temperature had risen to 18.6 degrees. Today, it fell by 3.2 degrees, bringing back the biting chill.
As compared to yesterday, the night temperature in the city also fell by 1.4 degrees and icy cold winds lashed the plains as well as upper reaches of Himachal Pradesh.
Throughout the city and adjoining areas of Punjab and Haryana, the mercury registered a sharp decline, and hovered two to six degrees below normal. The Met department attributed the cold to the fresh spell of moderate to heavy snowfall in Himachal since last night.
The city also had mild showers due to inclement weather conditions in Himachal Pradesh.