New Delhi: Even as the Capital on Tuesday recorded the coldest January day in nine years with the maximum temperature settling 10 degrees below normal, Delhi saw the least number of foggy days — with visibility levels below 1000 metres — in the December-January period since 1991-92, the IMD said.
Tuesday was also the second consecutive "severe cold day" in the Capital — in what has become the longest string of cold days recorded in the city — the highest for January in at least a decade.
The cold on Tuesday was so intense that all weather stations in Delhi recorded their maximum temperatures 10 to 11 degrees Celsius below normal. The Safdarjung Observatory, which provides representative data for the city, recorded a maximum temperature of 12.1 degrees Celsius, which was the lowest on a January day after 9.8 degrees Celsius recorded on January 3, 2013, according to IMD officials.
Senior IMD scientist R K Jenamani said it was also the lowest maximum temperature of the season so far.
Palam (11.6 deg C), Lodhi Road (12.2 deg C), Ridge (11.7 deg C), Ayanagar (12 deg C), Jafarpur (11.4 deg C), Najafgarh (12.5 deg C), Narela (11.7 deg C), Pitampura (13.1 deg C), Sports Complex (13.7 deg C) and Mayur Vihar (11.9 deg C) recorded a severe cold day.
Jenamani said Delhi has recorded a maximum temperature of less than 17 degrees Celsius on 11 days this month, equalling the number of such days in 2015. Eighteen such days were recorded in 2003, he said.
There have been seven Western Disturbances in Delhi this January as against a normal of three to four in the month, resulting in fog accumulating.
Despite this, the IMD has said that Delhi witnessed foggy conditions for 75 hours over 22 days in December 2021 — the lowest in 40 years — and in January, the city recorded 175 hours of fog. Altogether, the December-January period has seen foggy conditions for just 252 hours over 45 days as against the normal of 570 hours over 52 days, the IMD data showed.
Not much fog is predicted in the remaining six days of January as winds will be strong in the coming days, the IMD said.