Minimum temperature rises to 7.9 degree Celsius, but dense fog envelops Gurugram

GURUGRAM: A thick layer of fog enveloped the city on Sunday morning with visibility dropping to 100 metres, though the day remained clear and sunny.
The night temperature on Sunday was recorded at 7.9 degrees Celsius - two notches above normal, against 6.8 degrees Celsius on the previous day. The visibility improved to 300 metres after 8 am before paving for sunshine. The maximum temperature was recorded at 22.4 degrees Celsius - two notches above the season's normal. It was 22.5 degrees Celsius on Saturday.
However, cloudy skies, rains and thunderstorms are in store for the city this week as the much awaited wet spell is likely to stay from Monday to Thursday, with the peak intensity on Tuesday and Wednesday. The IMD has issued a yellow alert (meaning to lookout for) for Tuesday and Wednesday, predicting light to moderate rainfall accompanied by thunderstorms and lightning.
The minimum temperature in the city has increased during the past couple of days due to the prevailing warm and moist south-easterlies winds.
Though the isolated areas in Haryana have witnessed light rainfall under the influence of the western disturbance, the dry spell continued in Gurugram as there has been no rainfall activity since October 10, when it last received 3mm of rain. The weatherman has attributed the prolonged dry spell to the absence of regular or rather weak western disturbance, which is responsible for rains in winters.
"Usually, the month of January does not see much rainfall but it is important for the agriculture sector, particularly Rabi crops. This year, there was hardly any precipitation across the region and in Haryana, there is a rain deficiency of 70% till date. Sometimes, heavy showers can cover the entire deficiency in a day but it can be damaging as well to the yield. Now, there is active western disturbance, which is likely to impact the northern plain from Monday night and likely to continue till Thursday with peak intensity on Tuesday and Wednesday bringing light to moderate showers at fairly widespread areas. There will be no significant change in the minimum temperature for the next five days and it is expected to hover around 8-10 degrees," said Manmohan Singh, director, IMD Chandigarh.
Last year, the city had cumulative rainfall of 96.8mm against the normal of 10.6mm, a surplus of 813% in the month of January, while in 2021 it received 25.8mm (143%) rainfall and 14.9mm (40%) in 2020.
According to IMD's forecast, there will be partly cloudy skies on Monday with shallow fog in the morning hours. The minimum and maximum temperature is expected to hover around 11 and 21 degrees Celsius, respectively.