Amid intense cold wave in Delhi and its neighbouring states in north India, the national capital’s minimum temperature on Tuesday was recorded to be lower than the hill city of Nainital in Uttarakhand, the India Meteorological Department (IMD) said. Data showed that while the minimum temperature at Delhi’s Safdarjung – the official weather station of the capital – dipped to 5.6 degrees Celsius, the same in Nainital settled at 7.2 degrees Celsius.
The lowest minimum temperature in Delhi was recorded at Ayanagar at 4 degrees Celsius as the city shivered in extreme cold conditions. Safdarjung recorded the capital’s lowest minimum temperature thus far this winter season at 5.3 degrees Celsius on Thursday.
Pictures from earlier this morning showed Delhi covered in thick blanket of fog that considerably reduced visibility levels, causing people to turn the headlights of their vehicles on to improve the situation.
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The visibility levels at Palam and Safdarjung airport was recorded at 50 metres at 8.30am.
Delhi Airport has already alerted passengers that flights not designed to function in such inclement weather “may get affected”. “While landings and take offs continue at Delhi Airport, flights that are not CAT III A compliant may get affected. Passengers are requested to contact the airline concerned for updated flight information. Any inconvenience caused in deeply regretted,” the airport said in a statement on Twitter on Monday.
Furthermore, train services that have been disrupted for the last few days continue to remain so with a total of 15 trains bound for Delhi running late on Tuesday. Two trains – Delhi to Alipur Duar Mahananda Express and New Delhi to Jhansi Taj Express – were rescheduled by more than an hour earlier in the day, Northern Railway Chief Public Relations Officer (CPRO) said.
According to its latest bulletin, the IMD said that cold to severe cold wave conditions will continue in Delhi for the remainder of the day and the next 24 hours along with dense to very dense fog owing to existing light wind and high moisture.
A similar warning has been issued in Delhi’s neighbouring states of Punjab, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan and Chandigarh. In north Rajasthan, cold to severe cold days will continue for the next two days. The Met department said that the cold wave will briefly depart from Wednesday (December 28) onwards due to a western disturbance but will return in all the afore-mentioned regions on December 31.
On Tuesday, Rajasthan’s Churu recorded a minimum temperature 0.5 degrees Celsius, which was a marginal rise from zero degrees Celsius that it saw the day before.