On Friday, Delhi saw its coldest winter morning so far with the minimum temperature dropping to 4.9 degrees Celsius, four degrees below the normal.
With this, the national capital was colder than some locations in the mountains in Himachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand, like Shimla, which recorded a minimum temperature of 6.8 degrees Celsius in the morning, and Mussoorie, where a minimum temperature of 6.2 degrees was recorded.
At Dharamshala, the minimum temperature was 8.2 degrees early on Friday, going by data with India Meteorological Department (IMD).
Among locations in the plains of northwest India, Delhi was the third coldest on Friday morning, the coldest being Hisar in Haryana, where a slightly lower minimum temperature of 4.2 degrees Celsius was recorded. Bareilly in UP also recorded a lower minimum temperature of 4.6 degrees. Parts of Rajasthan recorded higher minimum temperatures than Delhi – Churu recorded a temperature of 7.4 degrees, while the minimum temperature in Jodhpur was 10.3 degrees. Delhi’s minimum temperature of 4.9 degrees Friday morning was also a little lower than the lowest minimum temperature of 5 degrees recorded in December last year. In 2021, a lower minimum temperature of 3.2 degrees was recorded in December.
The minimum temperature has remained below normal all through this week, with cold winds from the north and northwest hitting the plains of northwest India. Isolated rainfall or snowfall is likely over Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh over the weekend, going by the IMD forecast. IMD scientist Kuldeep Srivastava pointed out two factors that contributed to the fall in minimum temperature in Delhi on Friday – clear skies and cold northwesterly winds.
“After the passing of a western disturbance, the temperature has fallen. The wind direction is now northwesterly, bringing cold winds. Clear skies have also contributed…” he said.
© The Indian Express Pvt Ltd
First published on: 15-12-2023 at 12:38 IST
