Delhiites witnessed the coldest day in the new year on Wednesday as the mercury plummeted to settle at 4.4 degrees Celsius, three notches below average. The city had shallow fog with visibility remaining within the normal range. However, the Met department has said that winter this season has been slightly warmer than usual. Thursday's weather conditions are likely to remain the same with a possibility of light rains.
According to the MeT department, the national Capital will witness shallow to moderate fog in the morning on Thursday with the maximum and minimum temperatures expected to settle at 20 and 6 degrees, respectively. “The weather condition has improved. Flight operations were not affected as the visibility remained normal between 500 to 800 metres," said an official in the met department. According to the Northern Railway, 40 trains were running late and one was cancelled due to the moderate fog in the morning. The mercury was down 1.7 degrees from Tuesday's minimum of 6.1 degrees recorded in the city. However, the maximum temperature registered a rise by a notch over yesterday's 19.7 degrees to settle at 20.7 degrees. The city woke up to a shallow fog cover which, however, gave way to bright sunshine as the day progressed. The humidity level in air oscillated between 100 and 47 per cent.
Meanwhile, the weatherman has called this season marginally warmer than normal for this time of the year. "Winters this time have been slightly on the warmer side. Till date the minimum temperature dipped to 2.4 degrees once in December and after that the nearest has been around 4 degrees Celsius. Even fog conditions have been better compared to other years. In December, when winter season officially begins, there was fog for 35 hours against the normal of 40 hours.