NEW DELHI: For Delhiites who had been enjoying a pleasant winter so far, the coming few days will be a bitter reminder of December’s unforgiving cold. Thursday saw the minimum temperature dip to 5.9 degrees Celsius, three degrees below normal and the lowest so far this season. The next three days will witness similar weather with the minimum temperature expected to be 0.5 degrees more or less from Thursday’s low.
“The cold is likely to persist for another three days though the minimum should not fall below 5 degrees in this spell and after that a western disturbance (WD) is expected. This should lead to a slight increase in temperature but will most certainly lead to moderate-to-dense fog in the city,” said BP Yadav, director, IMD.
He added that even if WD doesn’t directly affect the northwestern plains, it will result in a change of wind direction and the easterly winds will bring in moisture. “Temperatures are already low and if wind conditions remain favourable, we are likely to witness dense fog,”
he said.
Thursday’s maximum temperature was 22.2 degrees Celsius, one degree below normal, with humidity ranging between 31% and 89%. Shallow fog has been witnessed in the morning hours for the last few days. In the NCR region, Delhi was actually the warmest. Gurgaon recorded a minimum temperature of 3 degrees Celsius while Faridabad recorded a minimum of 4.7 degrees. In the capital, Narela remained the coldest area with a minimum of 4.5 degrees Celsius.
Delhi has been witnessing minimum temperatures between 5 to 6 degrees over the last 10 years. The lowest temperature that the city has experienced in December since 1900 was 1.1 degrees Celsius on December 26, 1945. “The temperatures being recorded at present are not very low and show only a slight difference from the normal temperature. However, it has been a sudden drop in the last three-odd days because of which the cold is being felt more acutely,” said Yadav.
Met officials said November and the first week of December were affected by easterly winds and an almost continuous spate of WDs because of which temperatures remained much above normal.
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