Delhi records coldest November since 2006

New Delhi: The national capital recorded a minimum of 7.5 degrees Celsius on Friday, the lowest minimum temperature in November in at least 14 years, according to India Meteorological Department data. The city also witnessed cold wave conditions, as the minimum temperature was less than 10 degrees Celsius and five notches below normal, according to Mahesh Palawat, an expert at Skymet Weather, a private forecasting agency.

On November 29, 2006, the minimum temperature had dropped to 7.3 degrees Celsius, said officials. According to IMD scientists, the minimum temperature does not usually drop below 10 degrees Celsius in November. However, during the last week of November in 2017, the minimum temperature had dipped to 7.6 degrees Celsius. In November 2019, the lowest temperature was 11.4 degrees Celsius and in November 2018, it was 10.5 degrees Celsius.

"It's unusual for the minimum temperature to drop to single digits in mid-November. Winter is setting in early this year. The sharp drop in night temperature is mainly because of a combination of cold winds blowing from the snow-clad Western Himalayan region as well as largely clear skies in Delhi. When there is no cloud cover, the heat trapped in the ground dissipates fast, resulting in lower temperatures," said Kuldeep Srivastava, head of IMD's regional weather forecasting centre. He added that snowfall in the Himalayas is an annual phenomenon, which impacts the temperature in all of northwest India, but local factors such as the absence of a cloud cover play an important role. "The minimum temperature is likely to remain around 7-8 degrees Celsius over the next two days," said Srivastava.