Mercury Dips To Minus 5 In Ooty 

Ooty (TN): The hilly Nilgiris district continued to be in the grip of cold with a village on the outskirts of this famous tourist town recording sub-zero temperature for the second time in the past one week.

The temperature dipped to minus five degrees Celsius at Sandinala, about 10 km from Ooty, as Udhagamandalam is popularly known, in the wee hours of Thursday, district officials said. The area recorded minus three degrees Celsius on December 24 with the sub-zero temperature occurring in the region after a gap of three years. Ooty itself recorded a minimum temperature of zero degree Celsius early today and the intense cold forced the residents to remain indoors till about noon. The weather condition also resulted in formation of thin layer of ice on majority of water bodies, officials said.

The Met office in Chennai issued a frost warning on Wednesday, saying ground frost was likely to occur at a few places over hill ranges of Nilgiris district during next two nights.

PTI