On Thursday, Delhi recorded its coldest day of this winter as minimum temperatures fell to 5 degree Celsius and day temperatures fell below 20 degree Celsius.
North India, including the Gangetic plains, will continue to reel under cold wave like conditions in the coming days but there will be a gradual decrease in the persistent fog conditions, the India Meteorological Department (IMD) has said in its weather outlook for next fortnight. There is also a forecast for light rains over Jammu and Kashmir and Western Himalayas but rains will elude Delhi-National Capital Region (NCR) and plains.
On Thursday, Delhi recorded its coldest day of this winter as minimum temperatures fell to 5 degree Celsius and day temperatures fell below 20 degree Celsius. But, the gradual decrease in foggy conditions will mean pleasant sunny days and chilly nights in Delhi.
IMD's forecast showed that an approaching 'western disturbance', currently over Afghanistan, is going to help bring rainfall in upper reaches of the country and sustain cold wave like conditions. The western disturbance approaching India will also bring rainfall over higher reaches of Western Himalayas but is not expected to bring rainfall over the plains.
Western disturbance is an extra-tropical storm that originates in the Mediterranean Sea and travels eastward carrying icy winds and draws moisture from the Arabian Sea.
"Minimum temperatures are very likely to fall by 12°C over Indo-Gangetic plains from tomorrow onward and there would be no significant change over rest parts of the country during next 3 days," the Met department said. It added, "Considering the prevailing temperature and its trend during the week, cold wave conditions are very likely at a few places with severe cold wave at isolated places over Punjab, Haryana, north Rajasthan and southwest Uttar Pradesh till January 10."
According to IMD, the northwesterly to westerly winds near surface are likely to prevail and pick up speed from Saturday onward, causing a reduction in the spread of fog across North India. From 'very dense', the fog's intensity will reduce to dense and moderate by the second week of January.
Over the past week, Northwest and Indo-Gangetic plains have witnessed a massive spread of fog that has resulted in cold day conditions and below normal night temperatures. In Patna, the maximum temperature on Friday was 12.9 degree Celsius and the minimum temperature was 4.7 degree Celsius.
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