The mercury levels of the national capital on Wednesday dropped below the hill stations like Dharamsala, Nainital, and Dehradun. Delhi recorded 4.4 degrees Celsius temperature on Wednesday morning, which was the lowest of this season.
The movement of traffic was affected as a dense layer of fog lowered the visibility in the city to 200 meters.
The lowest at Delhi is 3.3°C in the Ridge area near Delhi University, IMD Scientists said.
“A cold wave is prevailing in Delhi and maximum temperatures are also low, leading to cold day conditions. Most places are likely to record maximum temperatures between 13 degrees and 15 degrees Celsius,” Senior IMD Scientist RK Jenamani told news agency PTI.
“Cold wave and cold day conditions are predicted to continue for the next 24 to 48 hours though there will be some improvement under the influence of a fresh Western Disturbance, which is likely to affect northwest India starting January 7,” Jenamani added.
The weather department has issued an Orange alert for the next two days for the region of Delhi-NCR. IMD issues four colour-coded warnings in which green means no action needed, yellow means watch and stay updated, orange means be prepared and red means take action.
On Tuesday also, Delhi was in the grip of ‘Cold day’ conditions with the maximum temperature dropping five degrees below normal at many places in the national capital.
A spokesperson of Indian Railways informed that due to foggy conditions at least 19 trains to Delhi are running late from one-and-a-half to four-and-a-half hours. The India Meteorological Department (IMD) shared some satellite images which display a thick layer of smog over the Indo-Gangetic plains and adjoining central and eastern parts of the country.
According to the IMD scientists, similar kinds of conditions prevail in other parts of north India including Punjab, Haryana, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh, and Bihar.
