Delhi experienced the third worst cold spell in the last 23 years and also gave a second cold spell warning from 14 January, India Meteorological Department (IMD) on Tuesday said.
R.K. Jenamani, Scientist, IMD said that Delhi experienced a cold wave right from 3-9 January which is almost 5 days. “During these five days, the temperature was around two to four degrees. As per the data available with us, this was the third worst cold spell in 23 years. From the year 2000 to the year 2023, we find that 3-9 Jan cold spell was the third worst cold spell in the last 23 years,” he said.
A cold spell means the number of days we experienced which is in the range of 5 to 6 days. A similar situation was there in the year 2006 when we had the lowest temperature of 1.9 degrees Celsius. In 2013 also, we had a similar cold spell, and January 3-9 was the third worst cold spell in the last 23 years.
IMD has also predicted rain, drizzle and snowfall on 12 January, and a second spell of cold spell on 14 January.
Jenamani said that there will be light rain or drizzle in states like Punjab, Haryana, Chandigarh, Delhi, Western UP and North Rajasthan. “For the Himalayan states like Jammu and Kashmir mainly Kashmir, we expect heavy rain or snow on Jan 12 We expect rain or snowfall in Himachal and Uttarakhand between 11-14 January,” he said. He said that we are also giving a second cold spell warning from 14 January. “There will be fresh cold spells over northwestern and Punjab. We have not confirmed but we are reviewing whether the daily temperature will further come down to three degrees or not. Western Disturbance is very active and there are chances that there might be a cold spell from Jan 14,” he said. Jenamani further said that there will be clouding and fresh moisture pertaining to the Western disturbance. “The Western disturbance is expected to hit over the western Himalayan region and also plane area during 11 to 14th Jan. It will lead to clouding and fresh moisture also. Because of the windy condition, the dense fog condition will improve further.
There was dense fog at the Delhi airport in the past 24 hours. But in the main city, it was relatively lesser fog,” he said. He further said that although the condition is improving, the worst condition persists over Bihar and Uttar Pradesh. “So far, the condition is improving, but Bihar and Uttar Pradesh remain in the worst condition,” he said.
Meanwhile, People braved through a thick fog on Tuesday as dense to extremely dense fog conditions engulfed northern parts of the country, with less than 100 m visibility at 8.30 am in several areas, including Jammu, Patiala, Karnal, while in Delhi’s Palam it dipped to zero.
“Less than 100 m visibility at 8.30 am in Jammu division’s Jammu, U’khand’s Pantnagar, Punjab’s Patiala, Amritsar and Ludhiana, Haryana’s Bhiwani and Karnal, Delhi’s Palam, Raj’s Ganganagar, UP’s Bareilly, Bahraich, Lucknow, Gorakhpur, Prayagraj & Bihar’s Gaya, Bhagalpur and Purnea,” as per India Meteorological Department (IMD).
As many as 40 flights, scheduled to depart from Delhi’s Indira Gandhi International Airport (IGI), were delayed because of dense fog, sources informed on Tuesday. While several domestic flights queued for departures were delayed because of inclement weather in the national capital, 18 more flights scheduled to touch down at the Delhi airport were also delayed.
