New Delhi: As the city woke up to a blanket of fog on Monday, Delhi recorded the coldest ever December day in 119 years with the mercury barely touching 9.4 degrees Celsius, the Indian Meteorological Department said. In fact, Monday might have been the coldest ever December day for Delhi as the weather office here has temperature records only as far back as 1901.
Kuldeep Srivastava, head of the regional weather forecasting centre, said the day temperature was almost half of what is considered normal for this day of the year. "Today was the coldest day recorded for the month of December," Srivastava said. The IMD said the Aya Nagar weather station recorded the day temperature at 7.8 degrees Celsius, followed by Ridge (8.4), Palam (9), Lodi (9.2).
The national capital has been witnessing its most unforgiving winter season in the past 22 years, as the minimum temperature has remained around 3 degrees Celsius for a few days. It has been experiencing "severe cold days" since December 14, according to IMD.
The absence of a strong western disturbance for the past 10 days, which could have disrupted the direction of icy winds coming to the national capital from the hills, has resulted in Delhi experiencing its second-coldest December in over a century, weather experts say. Western disturbances in early and mid-December led to heavy snowfall in hilly areas north of Delhi and frigid winds have been blowing in from there. This led to a sharp decline in temperatures in the plains, said Srivastava.
On Saturday, the Safdarjung Observatory, recorded the minimum temperature at 2.4 degrees Celsius, the
season's lowest.