Delhi woke up to yet another cold morning on Wednesday with the minimum temperature dropping below 7 degree Celsius making it the coldest day in the last 27 years.
The overall temperature dropped sharply in the national capital after heavy showers last week. The humidity remains at 90 percent today. The cold conditions are likely to persist on Thursday.
According to the Met department, strong and cold northwesterly winds from the Himalayan region along with thick low-level clouds and weak sunlight led to the dip in the temperature. However, the conditions will start to improve from Thursday, said Kuldeep Shrivastava, head, Regional Weather Forecasting Centre.
The air quality has also seen some improvement with the air quality ndex or AQI shifting from “poor” to “moderate” category. On Wednesday, the AQI was recorded at 191 for Delhi, 154 for Gurugram and 200 for Noida.
An AQI between 100 and 200 is considered to be moderate. However, the visibility remained low in many parts of the city due to moderate fog.
Fresh snowfall disrupted road connectivity in several areas across the Kashmir region. Schools have been shut in Uttarakhand due to snowfall and rains across the hilly state. The snowfall also disrupted power supply to dozens of villages in Gaisain, Narayan Bagad, Joshimath and Tehri.
Overnight snowfall in popular tourist destinations in Himachal Pradesh, such as Manali, Kufri, Shimla and Dalhousie left tourists stranded on highways.
Cold wave conditions prevailed in parts of Rajasthan, Punjab and Haryana. While Mount Abu, Rajasthan’s only hill station, recorded a minimum of 1.4 degree Celsius on Sunday night, Chandigarh recorded the season’s coldest day so far at 9.9 degrees Celsius today. Several flights have also been delayed in Chandigarh.
Heavy cold and dense fog has forced the Indian Railways to cancel 22 trains and reschedule another eight in Northern parts of India.