North India continued to reel under severe cold wave. The biting cold has claimed 12 lives, all in Uttar Pradesh, during the past 24 hours. State government has closed all schools and colleges up to 12th standard till Sunday due cold wave and foggy weather. Train, road and air services continued to be affected in the state due to fog. The national capital witnessed another dull and misty morning today with a layer of thin fog engulfing the city in the early hours. The mercury continues to remain below the normal with a fall in both day and night temperatures. While the minimum this morning settled at 5.3 degrees, two degrees below the average, the maximum yesterday was eight notches below normal. The Met department predicts the cold conditions to continue in the capital today with cool winds expected to keep the mercury down. The maximum and minimum temperature today will be around 14 and 5 degrees. However weatherman expect the conditions to improve slightly with mercury likely to increase in the coming days.While, the winter capital of Jammu and Kashmir State, Jammu yesterday recorded lowest ever day temperature during the last 30 years with mercury plummeting 10 degrees below normal to touch 6.5 degrees Celsius while as foggy continued to affect the normal life badly. According to Dr M K Khushu, Head Agronomy Division of Sher-e-Kashmir University of Agricultural Sciences and Technology (SKUAST) -Jammu, as per their records the maximum temperature of Jammu has never been plummeted to 6.5 degrees Celsius during the past 30 years and disclosed that prior to current winter season the lowest ever day temperature was 9.4 degrees Celsius, which was recorded on January 1, 2002 and January 15, 2003 respectively.Several places in Punjab and Haryana were under a thick fog cover that hit movement of flights to and from Chandigarh and affected vehicular traffic and trains in large parts of the two states. Chandigarh recorded its coldest day ever yesterday, making it colder than Srinagar and Shimla. Icy wind sent the maximum temperature in Chandigarh plummeting to 7.4 deg C, down by a record 14 degrees below normal. Severe cold waves continued to sweep Rajasthan while thick fog engulfed the region following which several flights were delayed. Mount Abu recorded a night temperature of minus 4 deg C, while Bikaner recorded the lowest in plain at 1.2 deg C.Madhya Pradesh government has closed all schools upto eighth standard till the 16th of this month due to cold wave sweeping the state.