A day after Delhi experienced its coldest December 14 since 2011, the cold wave intensified as the temperature dipped further. Twenty-five trains were delayed and 12 were cancelled due to low visibility, ANI reported.
The maximum temperature on Friday is expected to be around 19 degrees Celsius, four degrees below normal for this time of the year, while the minimum will be at 8 degrees Celsius, according to the India Meteorological Department.
The Air Quality Index at 3 pm in most neighbourhoods of the Capital city recorded levels ranging from the ‘very unhealthy’ to the ‘hazardous’ category.
Dense fog lowered the visibility in other parts of the northwestern plains, including Punjab, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh and North Rajasthan, weather monitoring agency Skymet Weather reported. The visibility at Amritsar, Sri Ganganagar, Sundernagar, Patiala and Hisar dropped to less than 25 metres.
Low temperatures, high humidity and light wind are causing fog, Skymet Weather said, and added that it expected similar weather patterns to persist late night and in the early morning hours over the next few days.
The meteorological department has forecast dry weather in Jammu and Kashmir till Sunday, IANS reported. Gulmarg and Kargil experienced the lowest minimum temperatures, which remained below freezing point, throughout the Kashmir Valley and Ladakh on Friday.
“At minus 10 as the minimum temperature [on Friday], Gulmarg was the coldest place in the valley, while Kargil at minus 10.2 was coldest in Ladakh region,” an official of the Meteorological Department was quoted as saying.
The cities of Srinagar and Jammu recorded minimum temperatures of minus 0.1 and 5.7 degree Celsius, while Pahalgam recorded minus 7.1 and Leh minus 5.7.
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