Delhi registered 1.1 degrees Celsius today, the lowest in 15 years.
New Delhi:
Heavy fog and numbing cold washed over Delhi on New Year’s Day as mercury plummeted to 1.1 degrees Celsius, the lowest level in 15 years. The Safdarjung Observatory recorded a low of 1.1 degrees Celsius, which provides representative data for the city, the meteorological department said.
On January 8, 2006, the city registered a low of 0.2 degrees Celsius.
The lowest minimum temperature recorded in January last year was 2.4 degrees Celsius, the Indian Meteorological Department (IMD) said.
Kuldeep Srivastava, the head of IMD’s regional forecasting center, told NDTV that “very dense” fog reduced visibility to “zero” meters in Safdarjung and Palam at 6 am. Srivastava said that the minimum temperature will begin to rise from tomorrow under the influence of an “intense” western disturbance that will affect northwestern India from January 2-6. The minimum temperature is forecast to rise to 8 degrees Celsius between January 4-5.
“The minimum temperature of 1.1 degrees Celsius is the coldest in 15 years. In 2006, the temperature dropped to 0.2 degrees Celsius. Cold wave conditions will persist today, but the temperature will increase from tomorrow,” Srivastava said.
According to the IMD, “very dense” fog is when visibility is between 0 and 50 meters. In “heavy” fog, visibility is 51 to 200 meters, “moderate” from 201 to 500 meters and “shallow” from 501 to 1000 meters.
Delhi recorded a low of 3.3 degrees Celsius on Thursday. At 15.2 degrees Celsius, the city recorded the season’s lowest high temperature on December 18.
With PTI inputs
.
