DELHI: Delhi recorded its coldest night in the month of October in 26 years on Thursday when the minimum temperature dropped to 12.5°C, three notches below normal.
The last time the mercury dipped lower — to 12.3°C — on an October night was on the 31st in 1994, reports Priyangi Agarwal. The capital recorded its all-time lowest October temperature (9.4°C) on the 31st in 1937, according to IMD scientists.
Both day and night temperatures will gradually start decreasing with the latter likely to hover around 12°C in the next two days before dipping to 10°C by the end of the first week of November.
Day temp likely to remain around 30°C next week
The day temperature, recorded at 32.2°C on Thursday, is likely to remain around 30°C in the next seven days.
Kuldeep Srivastava, scientist at IMD and head, Regional Weather Forecasting Centre, said, “Wednesday night was the coldest since 1994. The average minimum temperature of October is 19.1°C, but the minimum temperature recorded on Thursday morning (24-hour average) at Safdarjung observatory was nearly seven degrees below it.”
One of the main reasons behind the drop in the mercury level is there have been no clouds in the sky and the weather remained warm during the day, he said, adding that as calm wind prevailed during the night and there was no significant rise in the wind speed during day time, it also led to a fall in temperature.
The Met department said that the sky will mainly remain clear along with mist in the morning hours for the next five days.
The minimum temperature has mostly remained below 20°C this October. The minimum was recorded below 17°C since October 16. The average minimum temperature recorded in the last 10 years in the month of October was usually 18-20°C. While the average maximum temperature in the same month in the last one decade was largely above 32°C.