3.70 C: Delhi's coldest Dec day in 12 years

New Delhi: The national capital on Sunday recorded its coldest December temperature in the past 12 years with the mercury dipping to 3.7 degrees Celsius, as a moderate cover of fog surrounded the city, dropping visibility. In the past 12 years, the second lowest minimum temperature for the month was recorded on December 29, 2007 at 3.9 degrees Celsius, according to data from the Met department.

Sunday's minimum temperature was four notches below the season's average, a Met department official said. The all-time lowest temperature in the national capital for the month of December was 1.1 degrees Celsius recorded on December 26, 1945, the data showed.

The morning also witnessed a moderate cover of fog around the city, with visibility dropping to 300 metres at Palam and 400 metres at Safdarjung, said the MeT department official. As the day progressed, it became partly cloudy and a haze appeared in the evening, said the official.

The relative humidity at 8.30 am was 99 per cent. With the prevailing cold wave conditions, the minimum temperature on Saturday was 4 degrees Celsius, the second time this week. On Thursday too, the minimum temperature was 4 degrees Celsius.

Meanwhile, the cold wave that has been sweeping Punjab and Haryana, too, for the past 10 days continued unabated, with Adampur shivering at 1.5 degrees Celsius on Sunday. Adampur in Punjab was the coldest place in the two states, recording a bone chilling minimum temperature.

Severe cold swept Bathinda too, which recorded a minimum temperature of 2 degrees Celsius while Halwara's minimum settled at 2.2 deg C, a Meteorological Department official said here. Amritsar (4.9 deg C), Ludhiana (3.7 deg C), Patiala (4.1 deg C), Pathankot (5.6 deg C), Faridkot (5 deg C) and Gurdaspur (4.2 deg C) too experienced a cold night.