New Delhi, Jan 2: It was bitterly cold on Wednesday in north India with maximum temperature in Delhi breaking 43-year record as the maximum temperature was a mere 9.8 degrees Celsius, 11 notches below normal.
The day began chilly and foggy in Delhi with minimum temperature two notches below average at 4.8 degrees Celsius. The maximum temperature was recorded 11 notches below average. It was this cold the last time in 1969.
The cold wave also pulled temperatures way below zero in Kashmir and Himachal and the fog hit air, train and road traffic in Uttar Pradesh, Punjab, Haryana and Delhi.
A Met Department official in mountainous Jammu and Kashmir said minimum temperature fell to minus 3.9 degrees in Srinagar, minus 7.7 degrees in Pahalgam and minus 9.2 degrees in Gulmarg.
But the coldest town was Leh at minus 16.2 degrees Celsius. Kargil recorded minus 14.8 degrees. The conditions would only get worse Thursday before an improvement in night temperatures from Friday.
Himachal Pradesh, the other mountainous state, was sunny but the cold was biting. Keylong in Lahaul and Spiti was the coldest place in the state with minimum temperature at minus 8.9 degrees Celsius, a Met official said.
Fog hits 140 flights
Operations at the IGI airport here remained affected for the fourth consecutive day today after dense fog disrupted the schedule of over 140 flights.
Out of these total flights, 10 were cancelled either due to bad weather or operational reasons. An Air India international flight was diverted to Mumbai, an airport official said.
Dense fog started to descend at the airport around 10 PM last night but it thickened between 1 AM and 5:30 AM leading to drop in runway visibility to less than 25 m at the third runway, forcing officials to suspend operations on the strip.
Though dense fog enveloped the airport, operations largely remained normal as the main runway was operational through the night as the runway visibility was above the permissible limit of 150 m for takeoff, the official said.
Airport has been witnessing fog for past three days affecting the schedule of over 250 flights.

Lastupdate on : Wed, 2 Jan 2013 21:30:00 Makkah time
Lastupdate on : Wed, 2 Jan 2013 18:30:00 GMT
Lastupdate on : Thu, 3 Jan 2013 00:00:00 IST