Fog wreaks havoc, mercury at 11ºC max

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Delhi’s shivering cold on Sunday broke five year’s record, with the maximum temperature dipping by as much as 10 degrees below the normal to settle at 11 degrees Celsius, while icy winds forced the people to stay indoors on the weekend.

Moreover, there is no respite in sight as the weathermen has predicted similar cold conditions to persist on Monday.
Delhiites had a harrowing time on a cloudy Sunday as icy winds blustered across the city bringing down the maximum temperature to the season’s lowest of 11º Celsius. Besides, a dense fog jettisoned travel plans of several air and rail passengers.
“It has been the coldest day not only of this season but also in the last five years. The cold north-westerly winds from the Himalayas coupled with the heavy fog cover that obstructed the sunrays are causing this chill,” said a Met official.
The minimum temperature marginally rose to five degree Celsius, two degrees below normal, from 4.3º Celsius on Saturday.
“People feel more cold as chilly winds are blowing which lower the body temperature,” the official said.
Dense fog brought down the visibility well below 100 metres and schedules of at least 40 flights and 80 trains were affected. The condition improved slightly by 8 am when the visibility rose to 200 metres.
“Over 35 international and five domestic flights were affected. In addition to it a cargo flight was diverted back to its origin station early morning,” an airport official said.
Fog started to descend on the airport on Saturday night and thickened around 11 pm, forcing airport authorities to implement low visibility procedures at around 11.20 pm and were finally lifted after 12 hours, at 11.48 am on Sunday.
According to Met statistics, the highest temperature for the month was 32.5 degree Celsius recorded on January 28, 2004. The record minimum of -0.6º Celsius was recorded on January 16 in 1935.
In 2006, the minimum dropped to 0.2 degrees on January 8 while two years later, the lowest minimum was 1.9 degrees on January 2.
The mean minimum for the month of January is 7.3º Celsius while the mean maximum is 21.1 degrees.