The temperature is expected to hover close to the normal mark across Jammu and Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh, Punjab, Haryana, Chandigarh, Delhi and Uttarakhand during this month.A cold wave was recorded in Delhi over the last two days as minimum temperature dropped five degrees below normal. It was 6.7 degrees Celsius on Tuesday.
The minimum or night time temperature in the city has remained on a 17-year low for the month of November since Sunday when it was 6.9 degrees Celsius, and 6.3 degrees Celsius on Monday. The normal minimum temperature for this time of the year, as per the India Meteorological Department (IMD), is 11.3 degrees Celsius.
The IMD’s criteria to declare a cold wave in the plains is that the minimum temperature should be 10 degrees or lower and the departure from normal temperature 4.5 degrees or less for two days. For the current month, the last time minimum temperature reached below the present levels at the IMD’s Safdarjung observatory, which is representative of the city, was in November 2003 when it was 6.1 degrees Celsius.
Kuldeep Srivastava, head of IMD’s regional weather forecasting centre, said, “We are seeing a cold wave but Wednesday onwards there will be slight increase in minimum temperature as wind direction over Delhi has changed.” “Until Monday, we had cold northwesterly winds coming from states that have witnessed snowfall recently. The direction has now changed to easterly and will remain for the next two days,” he said. The maximum temperature on Tuesday was 25.3 degrees Celsius. This would start dipping December onwards, Srivastava said.
Meanwhile, Delhi’s air quality index (AQI) also deteriorated to very poor on Tuesday with a reading of 379. “