Delhi Night Temperature Likely To Fall To Under 2 Degrees In 24 Hours

A severe coldwave is likely to sweep across Delhi in the next 24 hours and could make the night temperature fall to under 2 degrees Celsius, the Indian Meteorological Department (IMD) said on Tuesday.

The forecast came as Delhi's minimum temperature fell to 3.6 degrees on Tuesday, when the maximum was two degrees below normal at 18 degrees Celsius. Like many states across north India, Delhi also witnessed fog.

For Delhi, the IMD had earlier predicted a minimum temperature of 3 degree on the morning of December 31. However, it has now revised the forecast saying "it is likely to drop further". Relief would follow in the New Year when temperature is expected to rise after the influence of Western Disturbance weather system ends.

The Western Disturbance weather system, responsible for the coldwave across north India, led to "scattered to fairly widespread" snowfall in Jammu and Kashmir, Ladakh, Himachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand, senior IMD scientist Kuldeep Srivastava told news agency PTI.

The snowfall brought icy winds to the northern plains where the coldest city was Rajasthan's Churu at -0.4 degrees, according to Skymet Weather agency. Other nine cities in the list of top 10 coldest cities were all from Haryana, Punjab and Rajasthan.

The weather department also warned of "dense to very dense fog in isolated pockets over Punjab, Haryana, Chandigarh and Delhi".

Away from north India, Mumbai also recorded the season's lowest minimum temperatures so far at 13 to 14 degrees Celsius. According to the IMD, the trend is likely to continue for another 24 hours with a gradual increase in temperatures thereafter.

(With input from Agencies)