Delhi shivers through its coldest day in two years, relief likely from Monday

NEW DELHI: The city recorded the season's lowest minimum temperature even as Saturday turned out to be the coldest day in two years.
Delhi, along with a larger part of the Gangetic plains, continued to face a cold wave along with cold-day conditions in most parts of the city, reports Kushagra Dixit. The city also saw dense fog on Saturday morning which delayed several flights and trains.
According to the IMD, the cold-day condition and cold wave are likely to continue on Sunday, while dense fog condition may persist till Monday. Delhi had been suffering cold-day and cold-wave conditions since January 5, while isolated areas of the city have been affected by harsh winter conditions since January 4.
At Ridge, mercury falls to 1.5 degree C, lower than Ayanagar's 1.8C recorded this week
The minimum temperature at the city's base station, Safdarjung, was recorded at 2.2 degrees Celsius, three notches below the season's normal and the lowest minimum temperature since January 2021.
The maximum temperature at Safdarjung was recorded at 16.7 degrees Celsius, three notches below normal against the 16.5 degrees Celsius a day earlier.
The city had earlier experienced the lowest minimum on January 1, 2021 at 1.1 degree Celsius, followed by 2 and 2.1 degrees Celsius on January 14 and 26, 2021, respectively.
Meanwhile, the lowest minimum temperature was recorded at 1.5 degrees Celsius, six notches below the season's average, at Ridge area, which broke city's Thursday record of 1.8 degrees Celsius as the lowest minimum temperature at Ayanagar.
At 12.7 degrees Celsius, seven notches below season's average, Palam recorded the lowest maximum temperature, thereby experiencing severe cold-day condition.
Other areas affected by cold-day or cold-wave included Lodhi Road, Ayanagar, Ridge, Jafarpur, Najafgarh and Mayur Vihar.
For cold-day conditions, the minimum temperature must be below 10 degrees Celsius, along with the maximum temperature being 4.5 degrees below the season's normal. For severe cold-day condition, the maximum temperature must be 6.5 degree or more below season's normal. A cold-wave is declared when the minimum temperature is either below four degrees Celsius or the temperature is 4.5 degrees below normal.
Meanwhile, the fog intensified again with visibility at Palam going down to 25 metres at 3.30am, which improved to 50 metres by 5.30am and 200 metres by 8.30am. This led to 32 trains and over 50 flights being delayed.
"The cold day and cold wave conditions will abate from 9th. The reason for harsh weather conditions on Saturday was that the western disturbance was not significant and didn't affect winds, moisture etc," said RK Jenamani, senior weather scientist, IMD.