Cold wave tightened its grip on northern India with the national capital recording the season's lowest temperature on Tuesday. According to Meteorological Department, the maximum temperature settled at 17.8 degrees Celsius, two notches below the season's average.
"The mercury dropped by 2.8 degrees in last 24 hours (since Monday) and is expected to drop further," an IMD official said.
The Met Office forecasted that the mercury could go down further in the forthcoming days as the atmosphere is being directly affected by the snowfall in Jammu and Kashmir, Uttarakhand and Himachal due to wester disturbances.
The official said that there will be clear sky with mist or shallow fog in the morning on Wednesday while the maximum and minimum temperatures are likely to hover around 16 and 4 degrees Celsius, respectively.
The IMD, however, forecast no rain and predicted the cold wave was only likely to mellow down from January 13, (Friday) onwards.
The city wake up with a chilly Tuesday morning as the minimum temperature recorded at 5.2 degrees Celsius, two notches below the season's average-- also the lowest in this season-- while the humidity oscillated between 100 and 52 per cent. The visibility at 8.30 a.m. was 1,200 metres at Safdarjung and 250 metres at Palam.
As per private weather forecaster, the mercury will further drop in Delhi by 4 degrees as there is cold wave-like condition the city along with National Capital Region (NCR), Haryana and Rajasthan.
"For Delhi, temperature will drop further on Wednesday. In Rajasthan's Ganganagar and Churu, the temperature was recorded 1 and 2 degrees respectively. The minimum temperature will rise from January 14 when dry south easterly winds would start in northern part of India," Skymet Director Mahesh Palawat told IANS.
The minimum temperature on January 10, 2016 was 13 degrees, while it was 7 degrees Celsius in 2015 and five degrees in 2014, respectively.
