Mercury drops to 1.9°C, school break extended

The Capital continued to reel under biting cold on Sunday as the minimum temperature dropped to its lowest level so far this season to 1

The Capital continued to reel under biting cold on Sunday as the minimum temperature dropped to its lowest level so far this season to 1.9 degrees Celsius, with the fourth consecutive cold wave day prompting the department of education to issue an advisory extending the school winter break till January 15.

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The temperature, five degrees below normal for this time of the year, is also the lowest minimum in two years. The capital recorded 1.1°C on January 1, 2021. The city last recorded its lowest minimum of 1.9°C on January 6, 2013.

The India Meteorological Department (IMD) has issued a yellow alert for Monday, forecasting the cold wave to continue in the region, before abating on Tuesday. Delhi’s minimum is likely to be 3°C or lower on Monday, forecasts show.

“Tonight, there will be a cold to severe cold wave over Delhi and the temperature will be around 3-4 degrees, some stations may record it as 2 degrees but from January 10 there will be no dense fog, no cold wave, maybe isolated fog will prevail but the cold wave will go,” senior IMD scientist RK Jenamani said.

IMD declares a cold wave 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.

Isolated parts of Delhi also qualified for cold day conditions, which the Met department classifies as when the maximum temperature is maximum temperature is 4.5 degrees of more below normal, while the minimum is below 10°C.

Safdarjung, which is representational of Delhi’s weather, recorded a maximum of 18.2 degrees — one degree below normal, but 1.5 degrees higher than Saturday’s maximum of 16.7 degrees. Other weather stations, however, reported much lower temperatures, including Jafarpur (14.1) and Palam (14.4).

The lowest minimum has been under the 5°C mark for the past few days, with the Safdarjung station recording a minimum of 2.2°C on Saturday, 4°C on Friday, and 3°C on Thursday.

Sunday’s minimum of 1.9 degrees at the Safdarjung station, however, is not the lowest minimum recorded this winter across the city, with the mercury dipping as low as 1.5 degrees at the Ridge station on Saturday.

According to IMD data for the Capital between 1969 and 2023, the lowest minimum of 0.2 degrees for the month was recorded on January 8, 2006, followed by 1.1 degrees on January 1, 2021. It was 1.4 degrees on January 9, 2006, and 1.9 degrees on January 2, 2008 and on January 6, 2013.

Delhi is likely to have another cold wave day on Monday, with the minimum expected to be around 3 degrees, according to IMD forecast. The city, however, may get a brief respite from cold day conditions, with the maximum hovering around 18-19°C, the forecasts showed.

“Coldwave conditions are still continuing, as fresh snowfall has been recorded in the higher reaches and cold northwesterly winds are blowing towards the plains. Night time temperature is dipping rapidly, particularly when fog is still shallow,” said a met official, adding that a western disturbance prevailing across the northern plains has not impacted Delhi.

A second western disturbance is expected to influence Delhi-NCR from January 11 to 13, leading to a rise in temperatures again.

“This current western disturbance is moving slowly and has not impacted Delhi. There has not been a change in the wind direction, which normally happens from a western disturbance and therefore, cold northwesterly winds are still blowing towards the capital. The next western disturbance is likely to change the wind direction from January 11 to 13, with some short-term relief from this cold expected,” the official added.

With no real relief from the cold in sight, the Delhi government’s director of education issued an advisory asking private schools to extend winter break till January 15.

Government schools are already observing a two-week winter vacation from January 1 to 15.

Following the advisory, some schools extended the vacation for children in primary grades. Classes for children in senior classes will resume on Monday.

“We have extended vacation for classes nursery till five. Senior classes will resume on Monday since we will be holding pre-board exams for classes 10 and 12,” said Sudha Acharya, chairperson of the National Progressive School Conference (NPSC) that has over 120 Delhi schools as members.

Schools have been suggested to conduct online classes after the DoE directions, Bharat Arora, president, Action Committee of Unaided Private Schools, a consortium of more than 2000 private schools, said.

“We have requested all our member schools to follow the DOE advisory keeping the IMD prediction in mind. We have suggested schools that schools could run online classes for this week, in case schools wish to,” said Arora.

DoE also suspended remedial classes for students of classes 9 to 12. “Keeping in view the prevailing conditions of extreme cold wave in Delhi, all the Heads of Government Schools of Directorate of Education are directed to suspend these remedial classes with immediate effect,” the DoE circular said.

There was also a slight improvement in Delhi’s air quality, with an AQI reading of 371 (very poor) according to the Central Pollution Control Board’s 4pm bulletin, dropping from 377 (very poor) on Saturday.

Forecasts by the Early Warning System (EWS) for Delhi, used by CAQM for its pre-emptive action, showed that AQI is likely to remain in the “very poor” category till January 11.

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”.

“The air quality is likely to improve gradually but will remain in the ‘very poor’ category from January 8 to 10. The air quality is likely to improve further on January 11, but will only reach the lower end of the ‘very poor’ category,” EWS said.