Delhi is experienced the worst cold wave in years as the minimum temperature fell to 1.8 degrees Celsius on January 14 which also happened to be Makar Sankranti.
As told by the India Meteorological Department (IMD) to leading news daily, Delhi remained under the grip of dense fog on January 14 with visibility levels dropping to 100 mt at Palam and 201 mt at Safdarjung owing to moderate to heavy fog in the morning.
As per the IMD, in case of dense fog, visibility is between 51 and 200 mt.
Reportedly, the Safdarjung Observatory in Delhi recorded a temperature of minimum of 2 degrees Celsius on January 14, which is five slots below normal, while the temperature on January 13 was recorded 3.2 degrees Celsius. The maximum temperature stayed at 19.2 degrees Celsius.
The IMD reports a cold wave in case the minimum temperature drops to 4 degrees Celsius and a severe cold wave is announced when the minimum is 2 degrees Celsius or less.
Kuldeep Srivastava, head of the IMD’s regional forecasting centre, told the website that cold and dry northerly or north-westerly winds coming from the western Himalayas have been passing through the plains, thus, resulting in increased cold wave across North India.
Delhi had recorded a minimum of 1.1 degrees Celsius, lowest on January 1, 2021 which the lowest in the month recorded in 15 years.