The prevailing weather conditions may water down New Year festivities as the weatherman forecasting rainfall in many parts of the city on December 31 and January 1.
The Meteorological Department has predicted fair rainfall distribution in the city that will add to the bone-chilling cold gripping the city. The national Capital on Monday recorded the lowest minimum temperature in a decade for the month of December as mercury plummeted to a chilling 2.4°C in the morning, five notches below the normal. According to the MeT Department, December 29 was the coldest night in Delhi as the night temperature plunged to 0°C in extreme west parts of the city.
The MeT Department has predicted similar weather conditions for Tuesday with morning fog giving way to a clear sky later in the day. The temperature is likely to hover around 3°C while the maximum temperature would remain around 18°C. Delhi’s record of lowest temperature ever in December in the last 113 years was on December 26, 1945 when the minimum temperature plunged to a shivering 1.1°C.
The city experienced the chilliest night before December 30, 2013 on two instances before in the month of December, one on December 30, 1973 when the minimum temperature plunged to a record low of 2.1°C and another on December 11, 1996 when the minimum temperature plunged to 2.3°C. The minimum temperature at Ayanagar recorded on Monday was 1.2°C. At lodhi Road, the minimum temperature recorded was 2.3°C, while Faridabad and Najafgarh recorded minimum temperature 2.6°C.
In the remaining parts of Delhi, the minimum temperature hovered between 2°C and 3°C. “The average minimum temperature recorded on the day was 2.4°C, which makes it the coldest night in the last 18 years. The last time the minimum temperature plummeted so low was on December 11, 1996. The weather changed to sudden rain and cloudy night as forecasted,” said RK Jenamani, director in-charge, IGI MeT.
Many parts of the city experienced drizzle and the MeT predicts the same conditions for the next two days. Fog returned to the city and a thick blanket of fog accompanied by icy winds left people in the city shivering in the early hours. The thick blanket of fog during the early hours threw the rail, air and road traffic out of gear.
According to the airport officials, the early morning flight schedules were disrupted due to the fog. The schedules of over 200 flights were affected as the fog gripped not just Delhi but the cities such as Chandigarh and Amritsar. Motorists complained that they had a tough time maneuvering their way to Faridabad and towards the airport in the early morning as the fog made it difficult to see the roads.
Over two dozen trains were running behind the schedule bound for eastern India such as Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and Jharkhand. “Due to foggy weather conditions in the north India, 14 trains will remain partially cancelled and cancelled till January 15. These trains were supposed to be cancelled till December 30 earlier,” said a spokesperson with Northern Railway.
The minimum temperature on Sunday was recorded at 4.5°C. The maximum temperature in the last 24 hours was recorded at 19.5°C, which is a degree below normal. Hisar in Harayana touched the freezing point with the minimum temperature recorded at minus 0.1°C, eight degrees below normal. Western parts of the city such as Jafarpur and Mungeshpur shivered as the night temperatures dipped to 0.7°C and 0.9°C respectively.