Winter onslaught: Delhi is gripped by a cold wave, with the minimum temperature falling to 4 degrees Celsius
New Delhi: A cold wave swept through Delhi on Tuesday (December 21, 2021), with the minimum temperature at the Safdarjung Observatory, the capital’s official thermometer, dropping to 4 degrees Celsius, four degrees below normal.
“This morning’s minimum temperature was 4°C in the Safdarjung area of Delhi,” said the India Meteorological Department (IMD).
Earlier in the day, on Monday, Delhi’s Safdarjung Observatory recorded a minimum temperature of 3.2 degrees Celsius, which was five degrees Celsius below normal and the lowest so far this season. While affarpur village in west Delhi recorded a low of 2.9 degrees Celsius, which is six degrees Celsius below normal.
Meanwhile, the IMD said on Monday that cold wave to severe cold wave conditions are very likely to persist in northwest India for the next two days before subsiding.
“Cold wave to severe cold wave conditions are very likely to persist in some parts of Punjab, Haryana, Delhi, Rajasthan, and Madhya Pradesh over the next 24 hours, and cold wave conditions are very likely to persist in isolated pockets over the next 24 hours,” the IMD said in a bulletin issued at 1:45 p.m.
Cold wave conditions are very likely over parts of Uttarakhand, Uttar Pradesh, Maharashtra, Bihar, and Jharkhand until Wednesday afternoon, and over Jammu, Kashmir-Ladakh-Gilgit-Baltistan-Muzaffarabad, Himachal Pradesh, and Gangetic West Bengal until Tuesday afternoon, when they are very likely to abate.
The IMD declares a cold wave in the plains when the minimum temperature falls below 4 degrees Celsius. A cold wave is also declared when the minimum temperature falls below 10 degrees Celsius and is 4.5 degrees lower than normal.
