Cold Wave Strikes Delhi Makes it Colder than London and Shimla

Delhi is known for its extreme weather conditions. It is bit cold during the months of December whereas in January it is extremely cold but this year, Delhi’s temperatures are at an all -time low in December itelf.

On 22^nd December, Delhi’s temperature showed 4.2degrees Celsius and marked the coldest day in the national capital so far. This made Delhi colder than most of the hill stations in North India, including Shimla and Mussoorie and the extremely cold city of London as well. London, had reported around 10 degrees Celsius for this particular day.

Meteorological experts say that this unusually cold climate is expected to last for few more days because of the impact of Western Disturbances. Mr. R K Jenamani, Director-In Charge confirmed that this impact is slowly coming down and that cold days would last until Dec 28^th or 29^th. However the department forecasted heavy spells of fog for the coming days. On the 22^nd, there was a thick cover of fog covering Delhi city until almost noon, disrupting normal routine of people and school children.

For this particular day alone, close to 242 flights and 100 trains were cancelled, thereby throwing normal life out of balance. Many people were disappointed as their travel plans went for a toss. Delhi’s maximum temperature for the day too remained quite low at 15.8 degrees Celsius. Mussoorie with the temperature range of 9 to 16 degrees and Shimla with a range of 6.2 to 14 degrees were definitely warmer than the national capital. It has been nine days since Delhi has been witnessing sharp falls in temperature at was the fourth straight day that the Meteorological Department declared that it was a “cold day” in Delhi – a day when temperature dips to 5 degrees lesser than normal.

Poor visibility led to the shutdown of an entire runway in Delhi and disruption of normal operations in other airports like Lucknow, Ahmedabad, Jammu etc. came to a stand-still until about noon. In Delhi, even the runway that was operational, CAT III flights only from 5.30AM to9.30AM.

The minimum and maximum temperature ranges were 5.9 – 16.4degrees Celsius in Palam. Indirapuram and Faridabad too experienced quite a harsh climate, with the maximum temperatures of 12.4 and 12.5 degrees respectively. Some areas of Delhi witnessed spine chilling climate with the minimum temperatures getting as low as 2.4, 2.9 and 3.2degrees at Najafgarh, Jafrabad and Narela respectively.

The meteorological department confirmed that the impact was high this time because the western disturbances were milder than expected. Mr. Jenamani stated that the impact is slowly reducing, due to which the fog would get thin by 23^rd. He said that citizens of Delhi should be prepared to deal with harsh climates and fluctuations till December 29^th at least, after which things would get normal. He also confirmed that since the department has forecasted some wind movements, on the night of Dec25th and on 26^th Dec morning, the temperatures would be quite normal.