Temperature drops to 1.8 degrees at Aya Nagar, Delhi battles cold wave conditions

Cold wave conditions are recorded when the minimum temperature is 4 degrees Celsius or less.

The weather station located at the IGI Airport, Palam, recorded the highest minimum temperature in the city of 7 degrees Celsius early on Friday. The visibility at Palam early on Friday was around 200 m with moderate fog covering parts of the city.

According to scientists at the India Meteorological Department (IMD), dense to very dense fog over parts of northwest India and adjoining central and east India is likely to result in ‘cold day’ conditions in isolated pockets over the region. The IMD records a ‘cold day’ when the maximum temperature is 4.5 to 6.4 degrees below the normal in the plains.

In Delhi, the maximum temperature is likely to settle at around 17 degrees on Friday, a little below the normal of 19.4 degrees Celsius.

While moderate to dense fog is likely to persist on Saturday, dense fog and cold wave conditions are likely to abate next week. The IMD forecast indicates that shallow to moderate fog is likely over the next week, while the maximum temperature is set to return to around 22 degrees Celsius by January 12.

Meanwhile, the city has recorded no rainfall in more than two months. All of November, December and January so far have remained dry. November usually records around 6 mm of rainfall, while December sees around 8.1 mm. Delhi recorded some rainfall of around 9.6 mm in December last year.