Delhi’s first 10 January nights to be warmer than December’s last 10; fog next week

The IMD has forecast that the approaching western disturbance would be “quite intense” and could trigger light rain and thundershower over Delhi and NCR on January 5 and 6.

January is usually the coldest month of a year in Delhi and northwest India. This time, however, the first 10 nights of January are likely to be warmer than the last 10 nights of December 2018, scientists from the India Meteorological Department said.

A view of Rajpath in New Delhi, during morning hours on Wednesday, January 2, 2019. (Sanchit Khanna/HT Photo)

“The cold spell has come to an end,” said BP Yadav, deputy director general of IMD. “December has been unusually cold this time. A western disturbance is likely to hit Delhi over the weekend and the minimum temperature is expected to rise.”

The minimum temperature, which had remained below 5°C in the last ten days of December in Delhi, is expected to touch 9°C over the weekend in January. The average minimum temperature in Delhi in December is 8.3°C, while for January it is 7.6°C.

The day temperature in the coming days, however, could drop to around 18°C. For January, the average maximum temperature is 20.5°C.

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The IMD has forecast that the approaching western disturbance would be “quite intense” and could trigger light rain and thundershower over Delhi and NCR on January 5 and 6.

The department is also expecting some rain over the weekend and a spell of moderate to dense fog early next week.

“The rain would push up moisture content of the air, which in turn could result in a moderate or dense fog on January 7 and 8,” said Kuldeep Srivastava, head of the regional weather forecasting centre in Delhi.

IMD scientists, however, said that it is too early to forecast whether January 2019 would be as clear (less foggy) and colder as December, 2018.

Delhi encountered the least number of dense fog hours in the last 22 years in December 2018. It was also the coldest December in 13 years and the third coldest in 50 years.

“It would, however, be difficult to forecast whether January 2019 would behave in the same way – less foggy and colder than usual. It would all depend on the western disturbances and other meteorological parameters,” said Yadav.

Meteorologists from IMD said that the winter temperature and fog spells in Delhi is governed primarily by western disturbances.

“Western disturbances can push up the night temperature, bring rain and trigger fog spells. In January, at least five to six westerly disturbances hit northwest India,” said Yadav.

In December, however, not a single western disturbance hit Delhi in the last fortnight as a result of which the night temperature continued to dip.

“In January we have already had a western disturbance hitting north India triggering snow in the hills and rain in isolated parts of Punjab and Haryana. While the second one is expected to hit Delhi around 5 – 6 January, a third WD could hit north India next week,” said Srivastava.

While the minimum temperature on Wednesday stood at 6.5 degrees Celsius, which was one degree below normal, the maximum temperature stood at 23.4 degrees Celsius, which was four degrees above normal.