New Delhi: New Delhi today recorded its lowest temperature of 3.1 degrees Celcius this season, bringing its minimum temperature five notches below the average, as the cold wave sweeping across North India hit the national capital.
A “severe” cold wave has besieged Delhi, Punjab, Haryana, Madhya Pradesh, as well as parts of Telangana and Rajasthan this winter.
Rajasthan’s city of Churu recorded a temperature of minus 0.5 degrees Celcius, while Srinagar, in Kashmir, reported a subzero minimum of minus 5.8 degrees Celcius.
The minimum temperature of 3.1 degrees Celcius in Delhi was recorded at the Lodhi Road Safdarjung observatory, considered the official marker for the capital, said the Regional Meteorological Centre, Delhi.
The automatic weather station at Jaffarpur village in west Delhi recorded an even lower reading of 2.9 degrees Celsius, six notches below normal.
Two back-to-back western disturbances and the resultant slowing of cold northwesterly winds from Tuesday night will push the minimum temperature back up, said RK Jenmani, a senior scientist at the India Meteorological Department (IMD).
The IMD had predicted severe cold wave conditions in parts of northwest India till December 21.
A “severe” cold wave is when the minimum temperature dips to two degrees Celsius or the departure from normal is more than 6.4 degrees Celsius.