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At 14.6°C, Lucknow endures its coldest day this season
East of Lucknow, cities such as Ayodhya, Sultanpur, Gorakhpur, and Varanasi experienced temperatures exceeding 20 degrees Celsius due to prolonged sunlight. Fog cover lifted completely in parts of West UP as well.
The city experienced its coldest day of the season on Friday, with the maximum temperature dropping to 14.6 degrees Celsius, 5.5 degrees below normal. The sharp dip came after morning fog enveloped the city, following initially clear skies.
“The previous season low was 15.3 degrees Celsius on December 25, 2025. On December 19, the maximum temperature had touched 15.5 degrees Celsius,” said Mohd Danish, senior scientist at Lucknow met office.
The minimum temperature stood at 8.6 degrees Celsius. Saturday’s forecast indicates dense fog during morning hours with clear skies later. The maximum and minimum temperatures are expected to hover around 17 and 10 degrees Celsius, respectively.
Despite the IMD’s prediction of partial relief from the cold wave from January 2, weather conditions reversed course on Friday as fog blanketed the city.
Explaining this sudden shift, Atul Kumar Singh, senior scientist at Lucknow met department, said, “The influence of Western Disturbance broke lower tropospheric stability from January 1 as expected. However, strong surface winds caused dynamic instability, lifting the surface fog layer. The atmosphere at a slightly higher altitude remained relatively stable, trapping the elevated fog layer over Central UP and preventing sunlight from reaching the ground.”
East of Lucknow, cities such as Ayodhya, Sultanpur, Gorakhpur, and Varanasi experienced temperatures exceeding 20 degrees Celsius due to prolonged sunlight. Fog cover lifted completely in parts of West UP as well.
Bareilly recorded the state’s lowest maximum temperature at 13.3 degrees Celsius, followed by Shahjahanpur and Moradabad at 14.4, and Kanpur city at 14.5 degrees Celsius.
On Friday, visibility dropped to zero in Gorakhpur (IAF), Agra, Kanpur (IAF), Prayagraj and Azamgarh due to severe dense fog. Lucknow, Varanasi (airport), Varanasi (BHU), and Ayodhya recorded 50-metre visibility.
More cold wave days expected in January
The number of cold wave days in the state will increase this January as minimum temperatures will remain below normal, the weatherman said.
During December 2025, La Niña conditions in the Pacific Ocean and a strong polar vortex, coupled with negligible Western Disturbance activity, led to 22 dense fog days. The number of cold days, particularly in the second half of December, reached 12.
The average monthly minimum temperature in a large part of the state is likely to remain below normal during January. The number of cold wave days in the eastern and southern parts is likely to be 1 to 3 days more than the climatological average, while the maximum temperature is likely to remain normal or slightly above normal.
