Jammu and Kashmir is having heavy snow fall in the upper reaches of entire Pirpanchal range since morning. The Jammu Srinagar National Highway has been closed for vehicular movement at Patnitop and at Jawahar Tunnel near Banihal in Ramban district. Taffic police officials told AIR that the highway has been closed to avoid any untoward incident on the road and clearing of snow is going on. The plains of Jammu region had moderate rainfall this morning and the temperature dipped in the area. The sky is overcst and it has been raining intermittently at many places in the region.<br/>Though the cilly weather has put life out of gear, the rain is useful to rabi crop, especially wheat, barley and also fruit crops such as kinnows.<br/><br/>In the national capital, air operations at IGI airport were affected again, a day after dense fog played havoc leading to delay and cancellation of several flights. Due to operational reasons, 12 domestic fights were cancelled and about 40 others delayed by upto three hours today. Airport sources said, 12 flights of SpiceJet, Jet Airways and Kingfisher airlines to Amritsar, Leh, Chandigarh, Mumbai, Srinagar and Kolkata were cancelled either due to bad weather condition at the destinations or other operational reasons.<br/><br/>The Met department at the airport said, the runway visibility was recorded at 2,000 metres for the main runway and at 1,600 metres for new runway in the morning.<br/><br/>AIR correspondent reports, over 200 flights were either delayed by up to five hours or rescheduled or diverted to various destinations yesterday when thick fog and a cable fault disrupted flight operations. Airlines are finding it difficult to maintain the schedule, which went haywire due to dense fog and glitch in the cable of runway visual range measuring instrument leading to a halt in air operations for over eight hours.<br/><br/>Meanwhile, passengers whose flights were cancelled or delayed thronged the reservation counters for alternative flights. They also complained about the alleged poor treatment from the airlines staff at the counters.<br/><br/><br/>Large parts of North India, including Delhi, plunged back into darkness late last night as the regional electricity grid collapsed due to dense fog, hours after it was restored.<br/><br/>The entire northern region, including Panjab, Haryana and national capital Delhi was covered with a thick blanket of fog today again. The mercury however improved a little but the chill kept the people indoors in most areas. Delhi, Jammu and Kashmir and some other areas had intermittent rains, throughout the day. In the Kashmir valley, white flakes covered several parts, the second snowfall this season. Earlier the valley experienced a snowfall on the second week of November. In Uttaar Pradesh, 30 people have died as a result of the cold wave. <br/><br/>In Uttar Pradesh, spine chilling cold conditions with dense fog continued to prevail in most parts of the state. Maximum temperature was recorded 2 to 10 degree celsius below normal at most of the places in the state.<br/><br/>Quoting Meteorological sources our Lucknow correspondent reports that at some places drizzling has added to the woes of the people. Shahjahanpur was the coldest place in the state with lowest temperature at 2.8 degrees celsius. The weather office has forecast cold conditions with dense fog to abate over eastern parts of the state.<br/><br/>Heavy fog also disrupted train services at a number of places, including cancellation of Magadh Express, Gomti Express, Lichchavi Express, and Pratapgarh-Kanpur Express. Train services on the Kanpur-New Delhi route normalised after 24 hours of disruption following collision of Prayagraj Express and Gorakhdham Express trains due to fog yesterday. Both the up and down lines are now operational. Uttar Pradesh State Road transport Corporation has canceled its several night bus services due to dense fog. In many districts including Lucknow, Gautam Budhh Nagar NOIDA, Sant Kabir Nagar and Varanasi school colleges have been closed. The state government has directed the officials to distribute blankets to needy people and erecting of makeshift shelter houses.<br/><br/>Meanwhile, death toll has risen to more than 100 with fresh casualties due to severe cold reported from different towns in the state during last 24 hours. Eight persons died of cold in Varanasi. Six casualties are reported from Mirzapur district. While, five deaths each were reported today from Ballia and Banda, four from Kanpur Dehat, three from Muzaffarnagar, two each from Sonbhadra, Hamirpur, Fatehpur and Chandauli, and one each from Farukkhabad and Unnao districts. Besides, many people are admitted to hospitals suffering from cold related diseases.