For five days on the trot Delhi’s cold wave has been so intense that the national capital has recorded a minimum temperature lower than that of most places in Himachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand
Officials said Delhi saw cold wave conditions for the fifth consecutive day today as very dense fog reduced visibility to just 25 metres, hitting road, rail and air traffic movement. For five days on the trot the cold wave spell in Delhi has been so intense that the national capital has recorded a minimum temperature lower than that of most places in Himachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand. Meteorologists attribute the long spell of intense cold to a large gap between two western disturbances. This meant frosty winds from the snow-clad mountains blew in for a longer-than-usual period.
An official of the India Meteorological Department (IMD) said the visibility levels dropped to 50 metres at the Palam observatory, near the IGI Airport, and 25 metres at the Safdarjung observatory and the Ridge weather station,
A railway official said due to bad weather, A total of 267 trains were delayed .
Officials at the Indira Gandhi International Airport said five flights were diverted and 30 delayed due to the foggy conditions. Satellite images showed a fog layer extending from Punjab and adjoining northwest Rajasthan to Bihar through Haryana, Delhi and Uttar Pradesh.
The Safdarjung observatory, Delhi’s primary weather station, recorded a minimum of 3.8 degrees Celsius as against 1.9 degrees on Sunday, which is the lowest in January in two years and the second lowest in the month since 2013. The minimum temperatures in the national capital rose marginally though.
At Lodhi Road, the weather stations of Ayanagar and Ridge recorded a minimum temperature of 3.6 degrees, 3.2 degrees and 3.3 degrees.
A minimum temperature the Safdarjung observatory had logged of 1.9 degrees Celsius on Sunday, 2.2 degrees Celsius on Saturday, 4 degrees Celsius on Friday, 3 degrees Celsius on Thursday and 4.4 degrees Celsius on Wednesday.
