New Delhi: Winter has settled in. The city has recorded the coldest morning of the season on Thursday.
The minimum temperature dipped to 10.2 degrees Celsius, two notches below normal, at Safdarjung, which is the city's base station.
As north-westerly winds, which bring cold air, are prevailing in the region, the minimum is likely to remain around 10 degrees on Friday.
Some stations saw a lower minimum temperature than Safdarjung. The North Delhi Ridge was the coldest with a minimum temperature dropping to 8.1 degrees Celsius, five notches below normal.
It was followed by Lodhi Road, where the minimum settled at 9.2 degrees Celsius, two degrees below normal.
India Meteorological Department's data shows that since Monday, when the minimum temperature was recorded at 16.2 degrees Celsius, the mercury dipped by six degrees. Apart from north-westerly winds, the minimum temperature is witnessing a dip due to radiational cooling.
"Fog has weakened in the region, allowing the sun to break through the surface. A clear sky causes heat to quickly dissipate and makes nights cooler than normal. North-westerly winds are bringing cold air from upper reaches which received snowfall earlier this month. The absence of strong winds also causes a dip in the night temperature," a Met official said.
Another IMD official said that as "we have entered the third week of Nov, the winter conditions have set in and it's part of Delhi's climatology for night temperatures to witness a dip now. The fog intensity and duration significantly reduced on Thursday. Dense fog was missing, while shallow to moderate fog was observed in isolated pockets of Haryana-Chandigarh-Delhi, UP, Bihar and west Madhya Pradesh," the official said.
The Met department said the lowest visibility of 500 metres was recorded at Safdarjung at 5 am, which improved during the daytime.
The maximum temperature on Thursday rose to 27 degrees Celsius, one degree below normal. It was 26.8 degrees Celsius on Wednesday and 25.4 degrees Celsius on Tuesday.
The Met department has predicted that the minimum temperature is likely to stay at 10 degrees Celsius on Friday, but it may rise to 11 degrees Celsius on Saturday and further to 12 degrees Celsius on Sunday. "A western disturbance is expected to impact the plains from Saturday and it may cause the minimum temperature to rise marginally," an official said.
TOI earlier reported that after the warmest Oct in 73 years, Nov was warmer than usual in the first fortnight of the month.
According to IMD's data, the minimum temperatures mostly start dropping below 10 degrees Celsius during the last two weeks of Nov.
The lowest minimum temperature recorded in Nov 2023 was 9.2 degrees Celsius on Nov 24. 2