North India continued to shivers under cold wave. Leh town in Jammu and Kashmir on Sunday saw mercury nosediving to this winter's lowest of minus 23.6 degree Celsius. The cold wave has also intensified in Gulmarg in north Kashmir and Pahalgam in south Kashmir, where mercury plunged 12 degrees below freezing point ‘ the coldest night in both the tourist spots this winter. Qazigund, the gateway town to Kashmir Valley, was freezing at minus 7.4 deg C, while Kokernag town in Anantnag district recorded a night temperature of minus six deg C. Temperature plunged to minus 2.4 deg C in Srinagar. Meanwhile, two-way traffic has resumed on Jammu-Srinagar National Highway, the only road link between Kashmir and rest of the country. Delhi shivered on yet another cold morning as the maximum dropped to 14.6 deg C, six degrees below normal for this period of time, while minimum was recorded at 7.8 degrees, one degree above normal. In Uttar Pradesh, most of the places remained covered with fog and mist even during the day. However, brief sunshine gave some relief in Varanasi, Allahabad, and Jhansi. The day’s temperature hovered between 11 to 16 degrees Celsius across the state. AIR Gorakhpur correspondent reports that five deaths have been reported from different parts of the state. Despite a clear and sunny day, mercury dropped further in Himachal Pradesh where all the major towns in lower hills reeled under the cold wave. Water in taps froze at many places in lower and mid hills and thick ground frost occurred in mid and higher hills. Authorities have rescued more than 100 tourists stranded in Kalpa town in Kinnaur district due to heavy snow. They were from Kolkata. However, three families from Jharkhand are still stuck in Sangla Valley. The road connectivity to Sangla village is likely to be restored on Monday. The government has advised tourists not to venture into remote areas of the state during winter as chances of heavy snow and avalanches were high. Cold wave swept Rajasthan with Mount Abu recording a low of minus 4.2 deg C, making it the coldest place in the state. Aranpura in Pali recorded minimum 2.6 deg C, while it was 4.4 deg C in Jaipur and 4.6 deg C in Dabok. Punjab and Haryana, also, witnessed extreme cold conditions during the day even though the minimum temperatures settled a few notches above normal. A thick blanket of fog at many places in these states including Ambala, Rohtak, Amritsar and Ludhiana affected normal life. Chandigarh recorded a low of 8.6 deg C. In Haryana, Ambala registered a low of 7.3 deg C, up two notches while the minimum at Hisar was 8.6 deg C, also two notches above normal. In Arunachal Pradesh, Tawang and Ziro witnessed extremely cold conditions during the day time even though the minimum temperatures settled a few notches above normal. A thick blanket of fog at many places in the Tawang and Ziro affected normal life as vehicular movement was obstructed due to low visibility. Higher reaches of the State received heavy snowfalls in the last few days bringing normal life to halt. Places like Mayudia in Dibang Valley, Vijaynagar in Changlang, Sela Pass in Tawang were all covered with snow. State Capital Itanagar is also reeling under severe cold. In Maharashtra, Mumbai and neighbouring Thane district witnessed sharp fall in temperature for the last couple of days.