Mercury drops to 7.3 degrees, Friday coldest day of the season
NEW DELHI: Friday was the coldest day of this year with the mercury dipping to 7.3 degrees Celsius with strong winds coming from the snow-clad regions of Jammu and Kashmir and Himachal Pradesh cooling the city.
“The night te mperature dropped by four degrees from around 11.2 degrees Celsius on Thursday to 7.3 degrees Celsius on Friday. It would remain in the same range over the next 48 hours,” said Kuldeep Srivastava, a senior scientist with the RWFC.
At 19.5 degrees Celsius, the day temperature on Friday was also at least four degrees below the climatic normal.
The western disturbance that had triggered rain in Delhi on Monday night also triggered snowfall in northern states. The snow is now melting and the winds are bringing in that chill from north India. On Thursday, Delhi enjoyed its coldest December 14 in seven years.
“When the maximum temperature falls at least 4.4 degrees below the climatic normal we call it a cold day. Even though technically we cannot call it a cold day, as the departure from climatic normal was j ust around four degrees, but Delhiites got a feeling of cold day on Friday,” Srivastava added.
The strong winds also helped to flush out the pollutants and Delhi enjoyed comparatively cleaner air for the fourth consecutive day. Such cleaner air in the month of December was last witnessed in 2016.