Mercury falls to season’s low of 8.9°C as winter chill envelops city
NEW DELHI: Delhi’s mercury dipped below 9 degree Celsius (°C) on Monday for the first time this season.
The Capital recorded a minimum temperature of 8.9°C — three degrees below normal and the lowest so far this season.
According to the weather department, the minimum temperature is expected to stay below 10°C until Sunday at least, as cold northwesterly winds continue to envelop the region.
Delhi also recorded a maximum temperature of 27.3°C, which is one degree below normal for this time of the year. This is forecast to drop to 26°C by
Wednesday.
Met officials said that until cold northwesterly winds stop blowing towards Delhi, there will be no rise in minimum temperature. “There will be a further temperature dip towards the end of the month,” said a Met official.
Meanwhile, Punjab saw an increase of 5% in the area over which paddy stubble was burnt this Kharif season as on November 18, as compared to the corresponding period in the previous season, according to the weekly data compiled by the state’s remote sensing centre.
The centre reported this year, paddy straw was burnt over 1.48 million hectares on November 18, against 1.41 million hectares on the same day last year. However, the number of farm fire incidents in the current season came down when compared to the last season. As on November 21, Punjab reported 49,526 stubble fires, compared to 71,024 fires reported in the same period last year.