Winter chill to hit New Year revelries in Delhi, North India

New Year will roll in amid cold wave conditions in Delhi and other parts of North India. Minimum temperature may further decrease to 8 degrees C on Saturday and to 5 degrees on the New Year Day, as per the IMD (Indian Meteorological Department) forecast.

Delhi:Near winter chill may greet New Year revellers in Delhi and other parts of North India. Minimum temperatures may plunge to as low as 4 degrees Celsius till January 5 in the national capital. Cold wave conditions are very likely in isolated pockets over Punjab, Haryana-Chandigarh-Delhi during January 1 to 4, as per the IMD bulletin released on Saturday at 8 am.

Minimum temperature in Delhi hovered around 10.2 degrees Celsius on Friday. It may further decrease to 8 degrees C today and 5 degrees on the New Year Day, as per the IMD (Indian Meteorological Department) forecast. As a result, dense fog will continue in Delhi during these days. Thereafter, cold wave conditions may persist till Jan 5 in Delhi with minimum temperatures dipping to 4 degrees and maximum to 18 degrees.

Light winds and high moisture over Indo-Gangetic plains may lead to dense to very dense fog in Punjab and Haryana, Chandigarh and Delhi. Isolated pockets over Uttar Pradesh will have foggy days during January 1-5. Dense fog is very likely in isolated pockets over north Rajasthan on Jan 1 and 2.

Dense Fog also very likely in isolated pockets over Assam & Meghalaya and Nagaland, Manipur, Mizoram & Tripura during next 24 hours, as per the IMD forecast. Regarding weather systems, a fresh feeble Western Disturbance is likely to cause light isolated to scattered rainfall/snowfall over Western Himalayan region on Jan 3 and 4.

Minimum temperatures as on December 30 were appreciably above normal (3.1 to 5.1 degrees C) at many places over Punjab, Haryana, Chandigarh and Delhi. They were below normal (-1.6 to -3.1 degrees C) at isolated places over Gangetic West Bengal and near normal over remaining parts of the country.

On Saturday, dense to very dense fog is very likely in some or many pockets over Punjab, Haryana, Chandigarh and in isolated pockets over Uttar Pradesh and dense fog in isolated pockets over Delhi.