NEW DELHI: Delhi woke up to the season’s second coldest morning on Thursday with the minimum temperature settling at 3.4 degrees Celsius. Cold wave conditions are likely to grip the national capital on New Year’s Eve, officials in the India Meteorological Department (IMD) said.
The air quality curently at ‘poor’ zone is likely to deteriorate with cold conditions setting in, weather officials said.
As per IMD data, on Thursday the Safdarjung Observatory, the base station for Delhi recorded the minimum temperature at 3.4 degrees C – four notches below the season’s average.
Besides, the Lodhi Road weather station recorded the minimum temperature of 4.6 degrees C, two notches below normal for this time of the year.
Previously on December 20, Delhi had recorded minimum temperature of 3.2 degrees C, which was the season’s lowest minimum temperature.
According to officials, cold wave conditions are likely over the northwest region including Delhi, Haryana, Rajasthan, UP and Chandigarh during December 31 to January 3 while parts of Punjab can see cold wave to ‘severe’ cold wave conditions during the same period.
"An intense western disturbance is likely to affect the Western Himalayan Region during January 4-7, with possibility of isolated heavy rainfall over plains of northwest India, including parts of Delhi around January 5-7," said R K Jenamani, senior IMD scientist.
Mahesh Palawat, vice-president, Skymet, a private weather forecaster, too said that minimum temperature will drop on New Year’s Eve and remain low on January 1.
Also, air quality may stay ‘poor’ on account of good winds. However, with a feeble western disturbance again approaching from January 1-3, when winds may slow down and worsen air quality.