Winter chill sets in: Mercury may fall to 10°C this week, IMD predicts
NEW DELHI: With cold northwesterly winds blowing towards the Capital now, Delhi’s minimum temperature has dipped by over four degrees in the last four days and is set to dip even further, touching the 10-degree mark by Saturday, forecasts by the India Meteorological Department (IMD) show.
Delhi’s minimum temperature on Sunday was 12.6 degrees Celsius – one degree below normal for this time of the year and the joint-lowest minimum of this winter season so far.
It was 12.6 degrees Celsius on Saturday too, while it was 14.6 degrees on Friday and 16.8 degrees on Thursday.
R.K Jenamani, scientist at IMD said the sudden drop in temperatures can be attributed to the western disturbance (WD) which departed the region on November 11, allowing colder winds to start blowing once again.
“The wind direction was southeasterly prior to that and the minimum was hovering around the 17-degree mark. We generally see a rise in minimum temperature when a WD interacts with a region and southeasterly winds are warmer. Since the WD, we have also seen snowfall in places and once northwesterly winds blow from that direction, it is bound to impact temperatures accordingly,” he said, stating while the minimum temperature may rise slightly in the next two days, another dip is expected closer to the weekend.
“On Monday, wind direction may briefly become easterly, which could lead to a slight increase, but the overall wind direction will remain northwesterly in the next seven days. Owing to that, the minimum will gradually dip further,” he said.
Forecasts from the Indian weather office show that Delhi’s minimum is expected to remain around the 13-degree mark until Wednesday, before dipping closer to 12 degrees on Thursday, to around 11 degrees by Friday and is likely to touch the 10-degree mark by Saturday.
According to the long-period average (LPA), the average normal minimum temperature for the Capital between November 12 and 16 is 13.6 degrees Celsius.
It is 12.4 degrees for the period between November 17 and 21, 11.3 degrees for the period November 22 and 26 and 9.9 degrees for the period November 27-30. However, data from previous years shows that the mercury can dip even lower in November.
While the lowest minimum in November last year was 9.2 degrees Celsius – recorded on November 24, it fell to as low as 6.3 degrees in November of 2020 (November 23).
In 2017, the lowest minimum in November was 7.6 degrees (November 24), data showed.
Delhi meanwhile recorded a maximum temperature of 28.2 degrees, which is around normal for this time of the year. This too is likely to drop slightly in the coming days, forecasts show. While it could dip to around 27 degrees Celsius by Wednesday, it may drop down to 26 degrees by Friday.