Most places in Haryana, Punjab witnessed fog with visibility reducing to 600 metres (Representational)
Severe cold conditions coupled with fog threw normal life out of gear in most parts of Punjab and Haryana on Saturday with many places recording minimum temperatures five to seven notches below normal.
Hisar was the coldest place in the two states with the minimum settling at 0.2 degrees Celsius, seven notches below normal limits, the meteorological department said.
The minimum temperatures at Hisar (0.2), Narnaul (0.5), Rohtak (1.8), Karnal (1.5), Sirsa (2), Bathinda (2.3) and Bhiwani (3.9) were even lower than Shimla which registered a low of 4 degrees Celsius.
Most places in Haryana and Punjab witnessed fog with visibility reducing to 600 metres, disrupting air, rail and road traffic in the region.
In a fog-related accident, two people died and around 12 were injured as 15 vehicles piled-up at Delhi-Jaipur highway in Haryana's Rewari district, police said.
Due to cold conditions, one person has died in Chandigarh on Friday night. His identity is yet to be ascertained, they said.
Chandigarh settled at a low of 5.1, one notch below normal.
The minimum temperatures at Narnaul, Karnal, Rohtak were five notches below normal at 0.5, 1.5, 1.8 respectively while Bathinda 2.3, Bhiwani 3.9, Ambala 4.1, Amritsar 4.7, Halwara 5.1, Patiala 5.1, Ludhiana 5.6, Adampur 7.2, Pathankot 7.5 were also below normal by one to two notches.
The Met department has forecast no relief from the intense cold conditions in the next three days besides predicting dense fog in Punjab and Haryana.