Despite being a bright sunny day, the winter chill continued in the national Capital as the mercury recorded the lowest so far for this year settling at 4°C on Tuesday. Dense fog brought down visibility to less than 50 meters in the morning delaying nearly 50 trains.
The maximum temperature settled two notches below the season’s average at 18.3°C while the minimum was 4°C, four notches below normal, making it the coldest day of the month so far.
“It is lowest of the month so far. In previous years, the minimum temperature has been recorded less than 4°C in January,” said RK Jenamani, Director, Met Department, IGIA. In December, 2014, the lowest temperature in Delhi had gone till 2.6°C.
Dense foggy conditions were witnessed between 7 am and 9 am, which led to the cancellation of eight trains, including Poorva Express, Shaheed Express and Mahananda Express. Also, 24 trains were rescheduled and 49 were delayed. Flight operations remained unaffected.
According to the Met Office, visibility dropped to less than 50 meters at 8.30 am from relatively better conditions at 5.30 am when it was recorded at 400 meters.
“However, as the day progressed, the visibility improved to 1,200 meters at 11.30 am and was recorded 1,000 meters at 2.30 pm and 5.30 pm,” a Met official said. Humidity levels oscillated between 55 per cent and 100 per cent.
There will be moderate fog in the morning on Wednesday, according to the Met forecast, which also predicted very light rain or thunderstorms in some areas morning onwards. The maximum and minimum temperatures are likely to hover around 17°C and 7°C, said the forecast.