After 0.5mm rain in the afternoon, the city’s maximum temperature dropped to 24°C, making Monday the coldest October day in over 10 years, according to the India Meteorological Department (IMD).
Schoolchildren cycling back home on a rainy Monday afternoon in Chandigarh. (Ravi Kumar/HT)
The second-coldest day in the month was October 15 in 2014 when the maximum temperature was 25.2°C.
Four degrees lower than Sunday’s 28.4°C, the day temperature on Monday was eight notches below normal for this time of the year.
However, it is likely to rise from Tuesday onwards as clouds make way for the sun.
On Sunday too, following 1.3mm rain, the temperature had dropped by 8 degrees from 36.4°C on Saturday.
While IMD usually maintains the record for the highest maximum temperature each month, officials reckoned that Monday’s was most likely the lowest day temperature in even more than 10 years and they hadn’t seen it go below 25°C in October ever.
Speaking about this, IMD Chandigarh director Manmohan Singh said, “A Western Disturbance was active in the region for the past two days, bringing along cloudy skies and rain, which cooled down the city. Snow in various parts of Himachal Pradesh also made the winds here chilly.”
Singh said clear weather was likely to return from Tuesday onwards and will cause the maximum temperature to rise again to up to 31°C. For now, there is no forecast of rain in the near future.
Meanwhile, the city’s minimum temperature also reduced slightly from 21.8°C on Sunday to 21.6°C on Monday. It is expected to remain in the ballpark over the next three days.