January 2013 was the coldest ever recorded

On the last day of the month, Skymet Weather stated that January 2013 was the coldest January ever recorded. Mahesh Palawat, Head of the forecasting team at Skymet said. “Records show that the average temperatures of January 2013 have been lower than the long term standard average temperature.” No doubt this January recorded temperatures in north India that shook the country and took the lives of many. Lowest minimum temperature at 1.9⁰C in 44 years in Delhi, 34mm of record breaking rain in Delhi, sub-zero mercury in Lucknow and Agra (-0.2⁰C), frost at many places, and record breaking snow in Shimla were some memorable highlights of the freezing January2013.

The standard average of the maximum and minimum of the month of January is 20.8⁰C and 7.6⁰C and the average of the maximum and minimum of January 2013 till the 30^th has been recorded at 18.24⁰C and 6⁰C. This therefore clearly shows that temperatures have been lower by almost 3⁰C. “But the changes in temperatures are not the only changes we witnessed”, says Mahesh Palawat. “The number of fog days and the duration and intensity of the fog hours have been way lesser in January 2013 than the figures of last year.” Though the last few days of January have constantly been foggy in Delhi and U.P, with the last day of the month recording zero visibility and intense fog in Delhi, the average number fog days will still be lesser.

Once again, this points at the rapid and seriously affecting changes of global warming in all major countries of the world. The month of January saw record breaking temperatures, not just in India but in China as well where the temperature dropped to -15.3⁰C and killed 180,000 cattle.

Photo by Praveen Negi.