North India reels under cold wave conditions, schools to remain closed till January 12

As north India continues to reel under severe cold wave conditions with dense fog adversely affecting the daily life, all schools in Lucknow and Ghaziabad have been instructed to stay closed till January 12. Several other districts in Western Uttar Pradesh, including Shamli, Saharanpur, Bijnaur have also declared special holidays in the view of this wintry conditions in the national capital region. However, the district administration of Gautam Buddha Nagar, Noida has refused any such possibility citing delay in the completion of the scheduled curriculum. There was no immediate word from the Delhi administration about this freezing condition in the capital city.

Meanwhile, the Uttar Pradesh Basic Education Board has directed all the affiliated schools to begin the morning classes from 10:00 am in a bid to spare children from the freezing cold across the state. The district administration in Bihar's Siwan has instructed schools to declare a holiday for classes till eighth. For class 9 and above the schools will start their morning session from 9:30 am.

Cold wave swept most parts of the national capital region with minimum temperatures in Delhi remaining below 5 degree Celsius. According to the Meteorological Department (MeT), the ongoing cold weather conditions are likely to continue in Haryana and Punjab over the next few days. In Delhi, the minimum temperature was recorded at 4.7 degree Celsius while maximum temperature plunged to settle at around 10 degrees Celsius.

Parts of Uttar Pradesh also shivered amid intense cold, with Muzaffarnagar recording a minimum temperature of 1.2 degrees Celsius - the lowest in the state. The night temperatures in Allahabad, Lucknow, Bareilly, Varanasi, Faizabad, Kanpur, Agra and Meerut divisions were below normal, the MeT officials said.

Weather was dry over the state with shallow to moderate fog occurring at isolated places. The weather office has forecast cold wave conditions at isolated places in west Uttar Pradesh over the next two days and shallow to moderate fog at certain places.