Gurugram: Minimum temperature in double digits, a first this month

GURUGRAM: Moisture-laden winds nudged away cold wave conditions and cleared out dense fog in Delhi-NCR, but another spell of winter chill is in the offing, meteorologists said on Thursday.
Minimum temperature touched double digits for the first time this month, climbing over four degrees Celsius in 24 hours and settling at 10.2 degrees Celsius on Thursday. It was 5.8 degrees Celsius the day before that.
The last time nighttime temperature was in double digits was on December 31, when it was 12 degrees Celsius.
According to the India Meteorological Department (IMD), a western disturbance (weather system that originates in the Mediterranean) over the western Himalayan region triggered light rain over NCR early on Thursday morning.
The day remained mostly sunny, with strong surface winds up to 18kmph keeping fog at bay and extending visibility to 800 metres on Thursday. Visibility had fallen to 50 metres due to dense fog until a few days back.
The city's maximum temperature rose slightly to 19.7 degrees Celsius, near-normal for this time of the year, against 19.3 degrees Celsius on Wednesday.
"This relief from cold is because of prevailing western disturbance as the warm and moist winds have increased temperatures. Similarly, due to the current weather system and strong surface winds, fog conditions have improved significantly over Haryana," said Manmohan Singh, director of IMD Chandigarh.
Projections by IMD said there won't be any significant change in temperature on Friday, but the humid, south-westerly winds will make way for north-westerlies that will bring down mercury by 3 to 5 degrees Celsius over the weekend.
Apart from the cold wave, dense fog is set to swoop over NCR on January 15 and 16, according to the Met department, which has issued yellow alerts (to lookout for) on those days.
"The western disturbance will retreat and cold-dry winds from snow-clad Himalayas will start blowing into the region. A fresh spell of cold is likely to be witnessed from January 14 to 19. Also, another spell of dense to very dense fog is very likely in isolated pockets during the night and in the morning hours over Haryana from January 14 to 16," Singh said. A cold wave is declared when the minimum temperature is less than 4 degrees Celsius.
This January has been particularly cold until now. Gurugram witnessed a streak of cold wave between January 6 and 9, with temperature falling to a low of 2.5 degrees Celsius on January 7.
Similarly, the city also recorded six 'cold days and severe cold days' from January 3 to 9 (barring January 8) as maximum temperature fell to 12.1 degrees Celsius on January 4.
A cold day is declared when the minimum temperature is less than 10 degrees Celsius and the maximum temperature's departure from normal is between 4.5 degrees and 6.4 degrees. A 'severe cold day' is recorded when the maximum temperature's departure from normal is more than 6.5 degrees.