Severe cold snap in Delhi on New Years Day; the minimum temperature drops to 1.1 degrees Celsius, the lowest in 15 years | Delhi News

NEW DELHI: A severe cold snap swept through Delhi on New Years Day when mercury dropped to 1.1 degrees Celsius, the lowest in 15 years, and “very dense” fog reduced visibility to “zero” meters, lo that affected the movement of traffic.
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, director of IMD’s regional forecast center, said “very dense” fog reduced visibility to “zero” meters in Safdarjung and Palam at 6 am.

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.
The Safdarjung Observatory, which provides representative data for the city, recorded a low of 1.1 degrees Celsius, the lowest in January in 14 years.

Delhi recorded a low of 3.3 degrees Celsius on Thursday. At 15.2 degrees Celsius, the city recorded the lowest maximum temperature of the season on December 18.
Srivastava said that the minimum temperature will start to rise 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.
Light rains are also expected in the national capital under the influence of the western disturbance from January 3 to January 5.
The western disturbance will cause moderate snowfall in the western Himalayan region, IMD said.
In the plains, the IMD declares a cold snap if the minimum temperature drops to 4 degrees Celsius. A severe cold snap is when the minimum is 2 degrees Celsius or less.
A cold snap is also declared when the minimum temperature is 10 degrees Celsius or less and is 4.5 notches less than normal.
A “severe” cold snap is when the minimum temperature drops to two degrees Celsius or the output is more than 6.4 degrees.
The average low temperature in Delhi in December was the second lowest in 15 years.
Data released by IMD on Thursday showed that the mean minimum temperature (MMT) this December was 7.1 degrees Celsius. It was 7.6 degrees centigrade last year.