Icy winds blow in, minimum temperature falls to 5 degree Celsius in Gurugram

GURUGRAM: Temperatures dived five degrees Celsius on Sunday as frigid winds from the Himalayas blew into the country’s northwest, setting up Delhi-NCR for another spell of cold wave over this week.
Minimum temperature in Gurugram fell to 5.3 degrees Celsius on Sunday, from 10 degrees Celsius the night before that. Mercury is expected to drop by another one to two degrees till Wednesday as a cold wave sweeps over the region.
India Meteorological Department (IMD) has issued an orange alert (to be prepared) for Monday and a yellow alert (to lookout for) for Tuesday, warning residents against long exposure to cold and advising them to limit outdoor activities as far as possible.
On Sunday, cool winds also washed away pollutants, leaving in their trail a crisp winter day marked by blue skies and abundant sunshine. Maximum temperature dropped to 16.3 degrees Celsius, four notches below the season’s normal, on Sunday afternoon. It was 17.2 degrees Celsius the previous day.
“Nights and early mornings are cold because winds are restricting fog formation and clear skies are allowing heat to escape into the outer atmosphere,” an IMD official said.
According to the Met department, some parts of Haryana were already in the grip of a cold wave, and the remaining were headed there.
“We are expecting a fall of 1-2 degrees Celsius in the next three days. Cold to severe cold wave conditions are likely to prevail over some areas, including Gurugram, between Monday and Wednesday. Cold day conditions may prevail over a few parts of the state on Tuesday,” the official added.
In Haryana, the range of minimum temperature was between 2 and 4 degrees Celsius over southern and western parts of state on Sunday. On average, mercury fell around 6 degrees Celsius across the state within 24 hours.
Meanwhile, cold wave conditions were observed at in Delhi, including Jafarpur, the coldest spot at 2.6 degrees Celsius, followed by Ayanagar at 3 degrees C, Ridge at 3.2 degrees C and Lodhi Road recording 3.8 degrees C.
There was a brief flutter among weather watchers in the morning with reports of -0.1 degree Celsius having been recorded at a weather station in Delhi's Najafgarh. However, the weather department said that was an error since the automatic weather station installed at UJWA, an agro forestry institute near Najafgarh, was not working properly. The previous cold wave in the city had continued for at least five straight days till January 9, when the minimum was 3.8 degree Celsius. A ‘cold wave’ is declared when the minimum temperature is less than 4 degrees Celsius. It is considered a ‘severe cold wave’ when minimum temperature is less than 2 degrees Celsius.