Two more deaths in U.P.; temperatures below normal at most places The cold wave continued to affect normal life in most parts of North India on Tuesday as more two persons lost their lives due to extreme cold in Uttar Pradesh. Residents of the national Capital had a taste of the harsh winter with the minimum temperature dipping to 4.8 degrees, three degrees below normal for this time of the season. Though the sun shone bright through the day, there was chill in the air even as the maximum temperature rose to 20.4 degrees, which was one degree below normal. The cold wave continued to hit normal life in Uttar Pradesh as two persons lost their lives in Barabanki district. The death toll in U.P. due to the harsh weather so far this winter has gone up to 267 now. Night temperatures fell in Varanasi division and were sharply below normal in Gorakhpur, Varanasi, Allahabad, Kanpur, Agra divisions. The lowest temperature in the State was recorded in Agra at 2.9 degrees. The biting cold wave also remained unabated in Himachal Pradesh as temperature in some parts of the State dipped below minus 20 degrees. The high-altitude tribal areas, covered under a thick blanket of snow, shivered under arctic-like conditions with minimum temperatures staying between minus 18 and minus 28 degrees, paralysing normal life. The Kashmir Valley also continued to shiver as minimum temperatures plummeted several degrees below the freezing point. Most of the water bodies across the Valley, including the famous Dal Lake, were partially frozen due to the drop in temperature. Srinagar shivered at minus 5.3 degrees, bringing it almost at par with the season’s coldest night at minus 5.5 degrees on January 8, said the weatherman. The tourist resort town of Gulmarg recorded a minimum temperature of minus 10.2 compared to Monday night’s minus 11.8 degrees. However, Leh town, situated in the cold desert of Ladakh, showed a slight increase in temperature with a low of minus 17.8 degrees. Punjab and Haryana also suffered due to the harsh weather with night temperatures remaining up to three degrees below normal. Narnaul with 1.9 degrees, three notches below normal, was the coldest place in Haryana whereas in Punjab, Amritsar with two degrees was the coldest place. The Union Territory of Chandigarh witnessed a low of 5.3 degrees. Various towns, including Amritsar, Ludhiana, Ambala and Karnal, also witnessed fog till 8.30 a.m. reducing visibility on State and National Highways as also railway tracks. A number of trains to Chandigarh, including Unchahar Express and Sadhbhavna Express, were running behind schedule by around three hours. - PTI