NEW DELHI: After a six-day cold spell, Delhi is likely to receive light showers over the weekend starting Friday night. That’s because a fresh Western Disturbance will hit northwest India on January 21. Rains may result in a dip in maximum temperature, officials said.
According to India Meteorological Department (IMD) officials, while Delhi and surrounding areas were experiencing cold conditions for six days because of fog and chilly winds over the entire northern plains, these conditions abated from Thursday.
Delhi until Wednesday saw the longest cold spell since 2015. This started on January 14 when Safdarjung and Palam stations recorded maximum temperature five notches below normal. During the week, weather stations at Narela, Ayanagar and Jafarpur recorded cold conditions. The previous longest cold spell was seen from January 11-13 in 2015.
“The fresh WD is likely to result in light rainfall and thunderstorm across Delhi-NCR, Haryana, Punjab, parts of Uttar Pradesh and Rajasthan. The activity will remain till January 23,” said a senior IMD official. R K Jenamani, senior IMD scientist, said after the passage of the WD on January 24 from northwestern India, conditions are likely to be favourable for another spell of dense fog/low clouds and cold conditions during January 25-27. “This spell is likely to be shorter than the one we recently had in view of the stronger lower levels westerly winds likely thereafter,” he said.
Also, during this time, minimum temperatures are likely to be below normal by two to three degrees over the Western Himalayan region, Punjab, Haryana, Chandigarh and Delhi. Dense fog in isolated pockets is likely in northern parts of the country.