New Delhi: The cold wave conditions continued in Delhi on Thursday as the minimum temperature dropped to 2 degrees Celsius. It was five degrees below the normal in this time of the year.
The weather stations at Safdarjung, Lodhi road and Ridge recorded the minimum temperatures at 2, 2.4 and 3.6 degrees Celsius respectively.
On Wednesday, the minimum temperature was recorded at 3.2 degrees Celsius at the Safdarjung observatory, which provides the representative data for the national capital. The maximum temperature was recorded at 18.5 degrees Celsius, which was a notch below the normal.
The officials from the India Meteorological Department (IMD) said that the cold wave conditions are likely to continue in Delhi till the next five days. It is expected to normalise on Saturday.
The IMD said that the current drop in minimum temperature has been happening due to cold and dry northerly/northwesterly winds coming from the snow-capped peaks in western Himalayas.
Cold wave is declared by the IMD when the minimum temperature dips to 4 degrees Celsius. A severe cold wave is when the minimum is 2 degrees Celsius or less.
On January 1, the minimum temperature had dropped to 1.1 degrees Celsius, which was the lowest recorded temperature in January in 15 years.
Apart from the cold wave conditions, dense fog also engulfed the city on Thursday morning. The visibility levels dropped to 100 meters and 201 meters at Palam and Safdarjung, IMD said.
According to the IMD, "very dense" fog is when visibility is between 0 and 50 meters. In case of "dense" fog, visibility is between 51 and 200 meters, "moderate" 201 and 500 meters and "shallow" 501 and 1,000 meters.
