New Delhi:
Delhi received light rain for the second consecutive day on Monday, even as the minimum temperature rose to 11.4 degrees Celsius due to a cloud cover over the city, the India Meteorological Department (IMD) said.
The Safdarjung Observatory, which provides representative data for the city, recorded a minimum temperature of 11.4 degrees Celsius, four notches above normal and the highest in the last 22 days.
The maximum temperature settled at 22.6 degrees Celsius, three notches above normal.
Clouds trap some of the outgoing infrared radiation and radiate it back downward, warming the ground.
The observatory registered 1.7 mm rainfall till 5:30 pm. The weather stations at Ayanagar, Jafarpur, Palam, Lodhi Road and Ridge gauged 4.4 mm, 2 mm, 1.4 mm, 1.6 mm and 1 mm rainfall respectively.
The IMD said moderate rains and thunderstorm are likely on Tuesday too.
Earlier in the day, fog lowered visibility to 50 metres at Safdarjung and 150 metres at Palam around 7:30 am.
According to the IMD, “very dense” fog is when visibility is between 0 and 50 metres, “dense” fog is when it is between 51 and 200 metres, “moderate” fog is when visibility is between 201 and 500 metres and “shallow” fog is when it is between 501 and 1,000 metres.
On Sunday, intense rains, thunder and lightning lashed the city under the influence of a strong western disturbance affecting northwest India. The Safdarjung Observatory recorded 39.9 mm rainfall between 8:30 am on Saturday and 2:30 pm on Sunday.
The western disturbance is causing widespread snowfall in the hills. Once it withdraws, the mercury will fall again to four to five degrees Celsius, the IMD said.
On Friday, the mercury plummeted to 1.1 degrees Celsius, the lowest in 15 years, and “very dense” fog lowered visibility to “zero” metres.
On January 8, 2006, the city had recorded a minimum temperature of 0.2 degrees Celsius. The all-time record is minus 0.6 degrees Celsius registered in January, 1935.
The lowest minimum temperature recorded in January last year was 2.4 degrees Celsius, the IMD said.
