National capital is witnessing excruciating cold for the last 2 weeks. The day temperature has failed to lift up to normal mark of 20°C on successive days between 08thJan and 24thJan 2022. Mercury level has barely been touching 16°C mark and last 3 days remained below 15°C. These temperatures are 6-7°C below the normal value and therefore amount to severe cold day conditions.
When the minimum temperature is < 10°C and the maximum is at least 4.4°C below the normal, a cold day is announced. A severe cold day is declared when the maximum is at least 6.5°C below the normal. Base station at Safdarjung recorded 14.8°C yesterday, 7°C below the average. On 22ND Jan, the observatory measured 14.7°C, the lowest of this season so far. In between, the official representative observatory for Delhi had registered 14.9°C on 23rd Jan. Accordingly, the national capital has observed hat trick of severe cold day and it does not seem relenting.
The airport observatory Palam recorded the day temperature at 15°C, about 6.5°C below the normal. Some other observatories in the city area also observed severe cold day conditions. The prominent one being : Ridge-14°C(-7), Salwan School-14.4°(-7), Ayanagar-14.8°C(-7) and Lodhi Road-14.9°C(-6). In addition, very dense fog also covered some parts of the city, specially the airport, in the morning hours.
Mercury is likely to plunge further over the next 2 days, over most parts of the national capital. Actually, no major respite is likely in the remaining days of the month. Along with day temperature, even the minimum temperatures are expected to clamp, possibly amounting to cold wave conditions in some parts in the next 48hr. Severe cold may as well be a little deterrent for spectators of Republic Day celebrations on Rajpath.
