NEW DELHI: The sun finally shone bright on Thursday after the longest ‘cold day’ spell in 19 years. The days are likely to be warmer now while nights will be colder with the minimum temperature dropping by 2-3 degrees C by the weekend, weather officials said.
Delhi saw 13 ‘cold days’ of which six were in a row and then there were two consecutive ‘severe cold days’ recorded as well with more cold days being recorded intermittently. This was the highest number of cold days so far – since January 2003 when 18 such days were recorded.
According to officials in the India Meteorological Department (IMD), the chill will now shift to the night, as cold and dry northwesterly winds return to Delhi-NCR.
“The northwesterly winds blowing from snow-covered mountains are striking Delhi and the whole of northern plains as well as central India. Also, the sky is mainly clear, which means the earth’s surface is going to cool fast, as the sun goes down making the nights colder,” said a senior IMD official.
On Thursday, the maximum temperature was 19.1 degrees C, three notches below normal while the minimum settled at 6.3 degrees C, three notches below normal.
The IMD declares a ‘cold day’ if the maximum temperature is more than 4.5 degrees below normal, with the minimum being below the 10-degree mark. A ‘severe cold day’ is when the maximum temperature is more than 6.5 degrees below normal.
Also, officials said that a fresh feeble Western Disturbance is likely to affect the Western Himalayan Region from January 29 and another Western Disturbance is likely to affect northwest India from February 2. It further said that under the influence of a fresh WD, light isolated rainfall/snowfall is likely over Western Himalayan Region from January 29-30.
Cold Day conditions in isolated pockets likely over Delhi, Punjab, Haryana, Chandigarh, Rajasthan, Uttarakhand, Himachal Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh. According to the weather agency, the minimum temperatures in northwest and central India are likely to drop by 3-5 degrees Celsius over the next five days, leading to 'cold day' conditions in Delhi and a cold wave in parts of Punjab, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan, Gujarat, and Maharashtra.