Up until the morning of Wednesday, 4 November, the national capital recorded a minimum of 10.6 degrees Celsius, NDTV reported.
The Regional Meteorological Centre has, therefore, declared that “cold-wave-like” conditions are prevailing in Delhi.
Kuldeep Srivastava, the head of regional weather forecasting centre, has said that “technically, the cold wave hasn’t been announced yet, but the conditions are close to a similar weather condition.”
With the advent of winter, the temperatures in the national capital dropped to ten degrees Celsius, causing the India Meteorological Department to say that they’ll declare a cold wave in the city if the situation persists for another day, PTI reported.
They added that November 2020 is expected to be the coldest over the last four-five years. Head of regional forecasting centre of IMD, Kuldeep Srivastava said below normal temperatures will continue for the next few days.
Explaining the criteria to declare a cold wave, Srivastava said that IMD declares a cold wave when the minimum temperature is 10 degrees Celsius or below and is 4.5 notches less than normal for two consecutive days.
Scientists have said minimum temperatures have dropped significantly for the past four days because of cold north-westerly winds from the Himalayas blowing over the northern plains and subsidence of cold air over parts of the north-western region.
“The winds are north-westerly, and cold air is blowing towards the plains from the Himalayas. This is also a La Nina year. The circulation features are such that there is more cold air intrusion into the northern plains. We need to brace for a very cold winter,” said M Rajeevan, secretary, Union ministry of Earth Sciences (MoES).
(With inputs from NDTV and PTI)
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