Delhi remembers: Only four times such cold

But that is not all as the IMD predicts that there are chances of December 2019 “most likely” may become a historic second coldest month in a century

A man rides a bicycle on a road blanketed by dense fog in New Delhi on Saturday. (Photo | Arun Kumar, EPS)

NEW DELHI: That Delhiites are in the midst of a severe cold wave can be understood from the fact that only four times in the last 100 years did the mean temperature during December dip less than 20 degrees Celsius.But, that is not all as there are high chances that this month could “most likely” be a historic second coldest December in a century.

“The mean maximum temperature recorded for December month during 1901 to 2018 has gone four times below 20 degrees Celsius — once in 1919, 1929, 1961 and 1997. In 1997, the coldest Mean Maximum Temperature (MMT) was 17.3 degrees. However, till Saturday, the MMT was recorded to be 19.18 degrees Celsius,” the IMD  said.  It has predicted that the MMT would drop up to 19.15 degrees Celsius. 

On Saturday, the Safdarjung Observatory recorded a minimum temperature of 2.4 degrees Celsius in the morning while the maximum was at 13.3 degrees Celsius. The same temperature was recorded on December 30, 2013. Before that the coldest day in December was December 11, 1996 when minimum temperature recorded at the observatory was 2.3 degrees Celsius.  

The lowest maximum temperature recorded in Delhi this December is 12.2. on 18 Dec at Safdarjung and 11.4  on 25 Dec  in the outskirts of Palam. According to the regional Meteorological centre of the IMD, the severe cold day would prevail on Sunday also and situation is likely to be same. Meanwhile, due to slow wind speed, the air quality remains deteriorated in the city. The Air Quality Index stood at 392 as per the Ministry of Earth Sciences’ SAFAR. 

Neighbouring states shiver as well

Even neighbouring states are reeling under cold wave. In most parts of Punjab and Haryana on Saturday, many places recorded  minimum temperatures five to seven notches below normal.

Hisar was the coldest place in the two states with the minimum settling at 0.2 degrees Celsius, seven notches below normal limits, the meteorological department said here.

The minimum temperatures at Hisar (0.2), Narnaul (0.5), Rohtak (1.8), Karnal (1.5), Sirsa (2), Bathinda (2.3) and Bhiwani (3.9) were even lower than Shimla which registered a low of 4.