Delhi: Red warning issued, mercury plunges to 2.40 C

New Delhi: The national Capital on Saturday recorded its coldest day of the season as the minimum temperature plummeted to 2.4 degrees Celsius, officials said.

The mercury even plunged to below two degrees in some areas with the Lodhi Road Observatory recording a low of 1.7 degrees Celsius. Dense fog enveloped the city reducing visibility and affecting air and rail traffic and vehicular movement in the streets.

The India Meteorological Department (IMD) on Saturday issued a "red" warning for the national Capital as cold wave conditions continue unabated in the region. The red colour denotes extreme weather conditions.

The Safdarjung Observatory, whose reading is considered the official marking for the city, recorded 2.4 degrees Celsius in the morning, five notches below the normal.

The same temperature was recorded on December 30, 2013. Before that the coldest day in December was December 11, 1996 when minimum temperature recorded at the observatory was 2.3 degrees Celsius, officials said.

The all-time record of low in Delhi is zero degree Celsius on December 27 in 1930, senior meteorologist at IMD, Kuldeep Srivastava said.

Other observatories on Saturday recorded as follows: Palam 3.1 degrees Celsius, Aya Nagar 1.9 degrees Celsius, he said.

Due to very dense fog, zero visibility was reported in Palam Observatory area, which neighbours the city airport.

Due to heavy fog on Saturday morning, four flights were diverted from Delhi airport, said an airport official.

The official said that the flights were operating at the airport under CAT III B conditions, which means that the Runway Visual Range (RVR) is between 50 metre and 175 metre.

According to railway officials, 24 trains were delayed due to poor visibility, ranging from 2-5 hours. Howrah New Delhi Poorva Express delayed by five hours.

The air quality turned severe again on Saturday, as falling temperatures, high humidity and low wind speed allowed accumulation of pollutants. The overall air quality index stood at 413 at 10 am.

With bone-chilling cold continuing to sweep Delhi-NCR, the weatherman said that the mercury is likely to fall further on Sunday too. Cold wave and severe cold day and dense to very dense fog has been forecast over Delhi-NCR on Sunday and Monday, Srivastava said.

Mean maximum temperature (MMT) for December 2019 till 28th December stood at 19.18 degrees Celsius, he said. By that yardstick, it is most likely to become second coldest December since 1901 (coldest was 17.3 degrees Celsius on December 1997).

The Safdurjung Observatory recorded a high of 13.3 degrees Celsius on Saturday evening, seven notches below the normal.