New Delhi, Jan 8: Twentynine people succumbed to the intense cold wave in North India today as temperatures dropped to sub-zero levels at many places in the region.
Delhiites froze under chilly winds and biting cold with the minimum temperature plunging to 3.3 degree Celsius. Though today's minimum is up by almost a degree from the previous day, icy winds forced people to stay indoors during morning hours.
Today's minimum is four degrees below the normal level at this time of the season, the MeT office said. The maximum temperature was recorded at 15.5 degrees celsius.
Reports reaching here said that five people each died of cold in Unnao and Barabanki, three each in Mahoba and Chitrakot, two each in Deoria, Lalitpur and Mau and one each in Firozabad and Hathras.
One person died in Muzzafarnagar in western Uttar Pradesh.
According to a MET office report, mercury dipped to sub-zero levels at a number of places with Kanpur recording minus 1.1 degree celsius, 8 less than normal, followed by Agra at minus 1.0 degrees and Ghazipur and Lucknow at minus 0.2 degrees celsius.
Four persons died in different parts of Uttarakhand as people in Dehradun experienced the coldest day this winter with the mercury dropping half degree below freezing point in the city.
Residents of the state capital shivered at minus 0.5 degrees Celsius as they woke up to a sunny but windswept morning, the coldest of the season in many years, the MeT office said.
Reports from Bareilly said that the city saw chilly winds aggravating the problem of the people who witnessed the day colder than the night with the maximum temperature hovering around 7.8 degrees celsius.
Maximum temperatures were below normal by 6 to 13 degree celsius over the state. Cold wave conditions prevailed over most parts of the state.
There was no let up in biting cold wave sweeping Punjab, Haryana and Chandigarh with Narnaul registering sub-zero temperatures.
Narnaul in Haryana, whose minimum temperature of minus 3 deg C yesterday was the lowest since 1969, today registered a low of minus 0.7 deg C, six notches below normal, the MeT office said here.
Chandigarh, where yesterday's maximum of 6.1 deg C, had broken all previous records, today experienced the season's coldest night as minimum further dropped to 1.5 deg C, down five notches.
Biting cold conditions continued to affect normal life in Rajasthan where Churu recorded night temperature below zero degree Celsius for third consecutive day.

Lastupdate on : Tue, 8 Jan 2013 21:30:00 Makkah time
Lastupdate on : Tue, 8 Jan 2013 18:30:00 GMT
Lastupdate on : Wed, 9 Jan 2013 00:00:00 IST