7 ‘cold wave’ days in Jan this yr: IMD

NEW DELHI: Delhi recorded seven ‘cold wave’ days in January this year, the most in the month since 2008, India Meteorological Department (IMD) recordings showed on Sunday.

Kuldeep Srivastava, head of IMD’S regional weather forecasting centre, said January 2008 saw 12 cold wave days.

“This time in January we had seven cold wave days and in 2008, we had recorded 12 cold wave days in January. Only one cold wave day each was recorded in 2019 and 2020,” Srivastava said.

The city had recorded six cold wave days in the January of 2013.

The IMD declares a cold wave if the minimum temperature is recorded below 10 degrees Celsius and the deviation from normal is four degrees or above.

Srivastava said the increase in the number of cold wave days this month was caused because only one western disturbance affected the plains of northwest India this year, which led to more cloudless nights and low temperatures. The northwesterly winds from the snow-clad regions in the Himalayas blowing into Delhi also kept the temperatures low, he said.

A cold wave swept the national capital on Sunday morning as well, with the minimum temperature dipping to 3.1 degrees Celsius. This is the fourth cold wave day in Delhi in a week. As the day progressed, however, the temperatures rose, with the maximum settling at 25°C, three above normal.

The IMD has also forecast that a fresh western disturbance is expected to pass over Delhi-ncr, which will result in thunderstorm and light rain over the region on February 4 and February 5.