Delhi weather update: The national capital on Monday morning witnessed the minimum temperature plunging to a bone-chilling 1.4 degrees Celcius, the lowest in the month since January 1, 2021 while a severe cold wave swept over Northern India. The Indian Meteorological Department (IMD) had earlier issued an orange warning for a cold wave in Delhi till January 17-18.
The minimum temperature at the Safdarjung observatory was recorded at 1.4 degrees Celcius while the IMD headquarter at Lodhi Road recorded the minimum temperature at 1.6 degrees Celsius.
The weatherman has predicted a dip in temperatures to 3 degrees Celcius for today (January 16) as well as tomorrow (January 17) in the Delhi-NCR region. On January 18, the temperature will record 4 degrees Celcius, failing to give even marginal respite to Delhiites from the cold wave conditions, the Met office said.
Delhi saw an intense cold wave spell from January 5 to January 9, the second longest in the month in a decade, according to IMD data.
Notably, IMD has forecast a layer of dense fog and low visibility over the northwestern part of the country for the next five days. A severe cold wave is when the minimum temperature dips to two degrees Celsius or the departure from the normal limits is by more than 6.4 notches.
Fog causes trains to run late
It has also recorded over 50 hours of dense fog this month so far, which is the highest since 2019. The Indian Railways informed on Monday that as many as 13 trains are running late in the Northern Railway region due to fog. Trains like Darbhanga-New Delhi Cline Special (02569), Gaya-New Delhi Mahabodhi Express (12397) have been running late for 1 hour 30 mins while the Jaynagar-Amritsar Clone Special (04651) was running late by 8 hours.
Which regions expected to face coldwave conditions in North India?
Meanwhile, over North India, cold wave to severe cold wave conditions are very likely over many parts of Rajasthan, Punjab and Haryana, Chandigarh and Delhi till January 17 and thereafter in isolated pockets on January 18.
In view of the severe cold, the district administration in Uttar Pradesh's Gorakhpur decided to shut schools till January 17, and the district administration in Meerut ordered passed the same order but till class 8. And the Union Territory of Chandigarh has also extended the winter break for students up to eighth standard keeping in view the stern cold and fog spell in the region.
On Saturday, the weather department predicted dense to very dense fog over Punjab, Haryana, Chandigarh, Delhi, Uttar Pradesh, and Bihar during the next five days.Due to northwesterly winds from the Himalayas over the plains of northwest India, minimum temperatures are very likely to fall by 2-4 degree Celsius over the northwest and adjoining central India during the next two days, the IMD predicted.
(With inputs from ANI)
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