After a brief spell of warm weather, icy winds blowing from the snow-capped mountains in Himalayan region today brought back the chill in the air in the capital though the minimum temperature was above normal.
The day temperature dropped to 18.2 degrees Celsius, three degrees below normal, from yesterday’s 21.3 degrees primarily due to the icy winds which blew at a speed of 16 km per hour across the city, the Met office said.
Though the minimum temperature was nine degrees Celsius, two degrees above normal, the citizens felt more chill than usual due to the winds. Yesterday the minimum temperature was recorded at a 10 deg C.
The Met office predicted that icy winds will continue to blow over the city tomorrow as well and the mercury is likely to hover between 9 and 21 degrees Celsius.
The weatherman had earlier said warm weather conditions would be short-lived, and mercury could dip over the weekend following snowfall in the Himalayan region and rains in the foothills.
The piercing chill and icy winds that had persisted for several days cleared away on Monday when the maximum temperature rose to 19.2 degrees Celsius, after keeping below 15 degrees for almost a week.
Low temperatures coupled with icy winds from the northern mountains had made life difficult for the people for some days. The capital has recorded at least five cold-related deaths since December 26.
According to MeT statistics, the record for the highest maximum for the month of January was 32.5 degrees Celsius recorded on the 28th of 2004. The record minimum is -0.6 deg C recorded on 16th of the month in 1935. P
The capital recorded the coldest day for the past 42 years on Sunday when the maximum temperature dropped to 11 degrees Celsius, 10 degrees below normal.
In the last decade, only last year the minimum did not drop below five degrees Celsius. In 2006, the minimum dropped to 0.2 degrees on January 8 while two years later, the lowest minimum was 1.9 degrees on 2nd of the month.
