DELHI: The capital has been recording a minimum temperature of just 11.4°C on an average this month — the corresponding figure during last year’s November was 14°C — with the mercury dipping to 10.6°C on Tuesday, two notches below normal. With the mountains receiving fresh snowfall over the last 48 hours, the city’s minimum temperature is likely to fall further in the next two days, dropping below 10°C for the first time this season.
This October was the coldest in the city since 1962.
Lack of rain one of the reasons for cold Nov
A combination of factors has led to a cold spell this year. “Clear skies result in the day heat quickly dissipating, making nights cooler than normal,” Kuldeep Srivastava, a scientist at India Meteorological Department, said.
A lack of rain has also played a key role, according to the IMD scientist. “We recorded a western disturbance after Diwali. However, we have not seen another this month. The same was true for October. Whenever a western disturbance approaches a region, the minimum temperature rises and that makes things warmer for a couple of days. Lack of rain has meant we have not seen cloudy skies at all,” said Srivastava, who is also the head of the Regional Weather Forecasting Centre.
The highest minimum temperature this November was 16 degrees Celsius, on the 16th, after Delhi received a spell of rain the previous day. Delhi meanwhile has already recorded two days this month when the minimum touched 10 degrees Celsius. Normally, the capital falls below 10 degrees Celsiys in the first week of December. Last year, the lowest minimum recorded in all of 2019 November was 11.4°Celsius.