The “worst period” of cold wave in Delhi is over for now and icy winds won’t continue from northwest for long due to “on and off” western disturbances, claimed a senior scientist at a private forecasting agency Skymet Weather.

On Tuesday, the sun shone bright and a layer of fog that enveloped Delhi dissipated, bringing some relief from cold that battered the city for over two weeks.

The India Meteorological Department’s (IMD) said there would be “no cold wave in Delhi till January 4 and temperatures will rise”. However, weathermen forecast moderate fog in Delhi on Wednesday and very light rain on Thursday.

The prolonged cold and absence of adequate sunshine due  had caused the mercury to plummet drastically, making December the second-coldest and Monday the coldest recorded day (with a maximum of 9.4 degrees Celsius) since 1901. Kuldeep Srivastava, head of the IMD’s regional centre, said Delhi witnessed another “cold day” on Tuesday.

With this, December has recorded 18 consecutive “cold days”’, the maximum after 17 cold days in December 1997.  Easterly winds, gusting up to 14-15 kmph pushed fog towards Punjab and Haryana, making Delhi skies clear, Mahesh Palawat, a senior scientist at private forecasting agency Skymet Weather, said.

It caused the minimum temperature to go up from 2.8 degrees Celsius on Monday to 4.7 degrees Celsius on Tuesday. The maximum also rose to 14.6 degrees Celsius.

“Only four times the mean maximum temperature for December has remained equal to or less than 20 degrees Celsius -- 1919, 1929, 1961 and 1997,” the official said.

The MMT for the month was 19.8 degrees Celsius in 1919 and 1929, while it was 20 degrees Celsius in 1962, the MeT scientist said further.

The IMD said a cold day is when the maximum temperature is at least 4.5 notches below normal. A severe cold day is when the maximum temperature is at least 6.5 degrees Celsius below normal.

In weekly weather forecast, the MeT said minimum temperature will hover between six degrees Celsius and nine degrees Celsius and maximum temperature will oscillate between 15 degrees Celsius and 18.

However, cold wave conditions persisted in northern states of the country on Tuesday, with Uttar Pradesh’s Kanpur hitting the zero-degree mark and Sikar in Rajasthan recording a low of 1 degree Celsius.