Three killed in fog-related accidents; fresh snow in Himachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand

New Delhi: Three persons were killed in road mishaps due to dense fog that hit road and rail traffic in northern states even as a fresh spell of snowfall in parts of Himachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand augmented wintry conditions. A cold morning in Delhi gave way to a warm and sunny day. The city recorded a minimum of 9.3 and a maximum of 24.3 degrees Celsius. Eighty trains were delayed while 49 trains were rescheduled due to foggy weather in the national capital and neighbouring states on Monday morning. The blanket of fog brought down visibility levels. It was 800 meters at 5.30 am and 400 meters at 8.30 am at Safdarjung. It improved to 1500 meters as the fog dissipated towards Monday afternoon. Two persons were killed in Ballia district of Uttar Pradesh when a speeding motorcycle hit a woman, who was crossing the road in dense fog. In another fog-related accident, a pedestrian was killed after he was hit by a bus on Bhopal-Indore highway in Sehore district of Madhya Pradesh. [caption id=“attachment_3184448” align=“alignnone” width=“825”] People and vehicles move through a thick blanket of fog in Bhopal on Monday. PTI[/caption] A number of places in Uttrakhand’s Chamoli district, including the famous slopes of Auli and the Himalayan shrine of Badrinath, received fresh snowfall that intensified cold conditions in adjoining areas. Clouds started gathering in the sky early in the day and it began to snow on the skiing slopes of Auli, Tungnath, Chopta, Rudranath and Badrinath by the afternoon causing a sharp fall in the temperature. Dehradun woke up to a bright sunny morning but icy winds blowing from the mountains made it cold. A fresh spell of snowfall in higher reaches of Himachal Pradesh intensified the cold weather in the state. Strong velocity icy winds swept the region and sky remained heavily overcast and a pale sun failed to warm it up. Theog, Narkanda, Fagu and Kufri recorded 5 cm of snow, while Khadrala in upper Shimla gauged 10 cm of rains. The adjoining valley areas were also lashed by showers. The MeT office has forecast rains or snowfall in mid and higher hills for seven days starting today due to Western Disturbance as an upper air cyclonic circulation lies over north Afghanistan. [caption id=“attachment_3184452” align=“alignnone” width=“825”] People cross the Pontoon bridge on the river Ganga amid dense fog in Allahabad on Monday. PTI[/caption] Cold conditions persisted in most parts of Rajasthan which was shrouded by dense fog early in the day. Chittorgarh was the coldest place in the state at 6.6 degrees Celsius. In Punjab and Haryana too, fog affected normal life and the movement of rail and road traffic in Amritsar, Ludhiana, Bathinda, Faridkot, Hisar and Narnaul. The weatherman said the two states were recording the maximum temperature between 23 and 25 degrees Celsius for the last few days but a Western Disturbance may lead to rains in some areas.