The weather office said minimum temperatures are likely to fall further
People in Delhi and its adjoining areas woke up to a chilly morning with the minimum temperature in the national capital dropping to 1.4 degrees Celsius - the lowest so far this season - as another cold wave swept northwest India.
The minimum temperature in the national capital has dropped by around nine degrees in just two days. It was 4.7 degrees Celsius yesterday and 10.2 degrees Celsius on Sunday.
Today's Delhi temperature is the lowest in January since 2021. Safdarjung observatory - the city's base station - had recorded a minimum temperature of 1.1 degree Celsius on January 1, 2021.
A senior meteorologist said the city's minimum temperature may dip to one degree Celsius tomorrow.
Cold wave conditions and foggy weather prevailed over Punjab, Haryana, Chandigarh and parts of Uttar Pradesh and Rajasthan as well.
In Haryana, Hisar recorded a minimum temperature of 0.8 degrees Celsius, while Punjab's Amritsar saw the temperature plunging to 1.5 degrees Celsius.
Churu, located near the Thar desert, logged a minimum temperature of minus 2.5 degrees Celsius, the lowest in the plains today.
The chilly weather has prompted Chandigarh, Rajasthan's Udaipur and Uttar Pradesh's Meerut to extend the winter break for students of up to Class 8.
The India Meteorological Department (IMD) has predicted intense cold wave conditions to continue through the next three days.
Minimum temperatures are expected to dip further by about 2 degrees Celsius in several parts of northwest and central India over the next two days, after which, the temperatures will marginally increase by 3 to 5 degrees Celsius from late Wednesday.
Dense fog conditions in parts of north India brought visibility down, delaying several trains.
A senior weather official said the day temperature is expected to be normal in the national capital. "Cold wave conditions in Delhi will prevail during the night and early morning. So, this cold spell cannot be compared with the previous one," he said.
Earlier, Delhi saw an intense cold wave spell from January 5 to January 9, the second longest in the month in a decade.
The city has recorded around 50 hours of dense fog in January so far, the maximum in the month since 2019.