Biting cold keeps Capital shivering as night-time mercury falls to 2.2°C

The reading of 2.2°C at Safdarjung, which is representational of Delhi’s weather, meant the Capital was colder than several hill stations in Himachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand.

Delhi on Saturday continued to reel under a coldwave, with the city logging a minimum temperature of 2.2 degrees Celsius (°C) — five below normal for this time of the year and the lowest so far this winter, showed data from the India Meteorological Department (IMD).

People warm themselves around a bonfire on a cold winter morning at Ghazipur market in New Delhi.

The reading of 2.2°C at Safdarjung, which is representational of Delhi’s weather, meant the Capital was colder than several hill stations in Himachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand, including Dalhousie (8.3°C), Dharamshala (9.2°C), Shimla (7.8°C), Manali (4°C), Solan (3°C), Dehradun (6°C), Mussoorie (8.1°C) and Nainital (5.8°C).

Saturday’s minimum was 1.8 degrees lower than the 4°C recorded a day before, and was the lowest temperature recorded in the Capital since the reading of 1.1°C on January 1, 2021, according to IMD data.

IMD declares a ‘coldwave’ in a region when the minimum temperature is 4.5 degrees or more below the normal mark, or when it drops to 4°C or lower

The temperature at some parts of the city dropped even lower -- the weather station at Lodhi Road reported a minimum temperature of 2°C, while the reading at the Ridge station was as low as 1.5°C -- the lowest recorded at a weather station in the city this winter season.

IMD declares a ‘coldwave’ in a region when the minimum temperature is 4.5 degrees or more below the normal mark, or when it drops to 4°C or lower. Safdarjung (2.2°C), Jafarpur (2.2°C) Lodhi road (2°C), Ridge (1.5°C) and Ayanagar (3.4°C) all met this criteria on Saturday.

Parts of Delhi also qualified for the criteria of ‘cold day’, which the Met department classifies as when the maximum temperature is 4.5 degrees or more below normal, while the minimum is below 10°C. The maximum in the Capital was recorded as 16.7°C at the Safdarjung station, three degrees below normal for this time of the year. However, other weather stations reported much lower temperatures, including Jafarpur (12.2°C), Najafgarh (14.4°C) and Mayur Vihar (14.9°C).

“Severe cold wave and cold day conditions prevailed today. The temperature will gradually rise and by January 9, we will see a significant rise in temperature. The maximum temperature is increasing gradually too,” said IMD scientist RK Jenamani.

Read | Easy tips to protect yourself from cold wave

Very dense to dense fog prevailed in most parts of northwest India on Saturday morning including Delhi, Met officials said. Visibility at Palam dropped down to 25-50m at 3.30am and was 50m at 8.30am.

According to the weather office, ‘very dense’ fog is when visibility is between 0 and 50 metres, 51 and 200 metres is ‘dense’, 201 and 500 metres ‘moderate’, and 501 and 1,000 metres ‘shallow’.

IMD said dense fog would continue over the next two days.

Meanwhile, Delhi’s pollution levels marginally improved on Saturday, with an Air Quality Index (AQI) reading of 377 (very poor), according to the daily 4pm national bulletin released by the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB). In contrast, the city on Friday had logged a reading of 400 (very poor, but on the cusp of severe).

The CPCB classifies an AQI between 0-50 as ‘good’, between 51 and 100 as ‘satisfactory’, between 101 and 200 as ‘moderate’, between 201 and 300 as ‘poor’, between 301 and 400 as ‘very poor’ and over 400 as ‘severe’.

School holidays extended in Ggm, Gzb

The district administrations of Gurugram and Ghaziabad on Saturday extended the winter vacation in schools (up to Class 8), keeping in mind the extreme weather conditions.

In Gurugram, the winter vacation was to end on January 8 but has now been extended by a week, said officials.

Gurugram deputy commissioner Nishant Kumar Yadav said the state education board issued a circular to extend the winter break. “All private and government schools will remain closed until January 15 and physical classes will be organised for only board students. A few schools want to conduct online classes starting Monday,” he said.

The city recorded the season’s lowest minimum temperature of 2.5 degrees Celsius on Saturday.

Meanwhile, the Ghaziabad education department has extended the winter vacation for classes 1 to 8 by three days. The vacations were earlier to end on January 8 but will now end on January 11.

“The extended closure of schools up to January 11 is taken due to the prevalent winter and foggy conditions. The closure will apply to all private and government schools from classes 1 to 8. Schools should ensure that they do not call children for any function or otherwise,” said Vinod Mishra, basic education officer.