[at-l] OT - cold South Asia

[weathercarrot at hotmail.com (The Weathercarrot)]

I know this is off-topic, but at least it's out-doorsy, and this is right 
down my alley, so I couldn't resist.

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Delhi gets first winter ice in 70 years


NEW DELHI ?? The Indian capital Sunday saw its first winter frost in 70 
years as a cold wave sweeping in from the frigid heights of the Himalayas 
killed more people in northern India overnight, officials said.

The capital city of 14 million people ordered schools shut for three days 
beginning Monday as the mercury for the first time since 1935 plummeted to 
0.2 degrees C (32.36 F) Sunday, leaving mounds of ice on cars parked in the 
open.

White-laced streets greeted early risers in New Delhi but any novelty value 
brought by the cold temperatures soon died as frost on power cables sparked 
partial power cuts across large swathes of the crowded city, the 
privately-run BSES utility provider said. In 1935, Delhi recorded minus 0.6 
degrees Celsius.

"I was born in New Delhi and this is the first time we are seeing ice on 
grass... It's just like snow... It's heavenly," said Supriya Singh, a 
fashion designer. Her jubilation was not shared by the city's homeless 
thousands.

Haryana state's Karnal city which adjoins New Delhi also shivered at 0.1 
Celsius, eight degrees below normal for this time of the year, the weather 
officials said.

Overseas visitors received a taste of the unusual winter in the 
immensely-popular and usually warm desert resort of Pushkar in Rajasthan 
state where a Hindu priest succumbed to the bitter cold overnight, the 
United News of India reported.

Nearby Churu felt the icy sting as the mercury tumbled six degrees Celsius 
to minus three degrees C (26.6 F) in the remote desert township, the weather 
office reported, adding that it was last this cold in 1974.

The Indian army was evacuating troops from their insulated bunkers in the 
Siachen glacier as temperatures went down below minus 40 degrees C (minus 40 
F) in sectors of the 23,000-foot high (6,969-metre) Himalayan wasteland, 
defence ministry sources said.

"Nothing can survive in such conditions up there and most of our men are now 
down at lower altitudes," an official said. The toll from the cold wave, 
meanwhile, rose to 137 as the eastern Indian state of Bihar reported that 10 
people, mostly homeless, had died of the cold since the beginning of last 
month. ?? AFP