Delhi shivers as mercury dips to below five degrees

New Delhi, Jan 10: Icy winds blowing from mountains today gave no respite to Delhiites from winter chill as it brought down mercury to below five degree Celsius.

The mercury plummeted to 4.5 degree Celsius, three degrees below normal and a sharp decline from yesterday's 8.4 degrees, on a sunny morning. Since Sunday, the minimum temperature has been dipping.

This is the first time in the new year that the minimum temperature dropped to below normal levels and on four days, in last ten days, the lowest temperature was five degrees above normal.

The highest minimum for this month was recorded on January seven when the mercury recorded 12.5 degree Celsius, five degrees above normal.

The Weatherman has predicted similar weather conditions for tomorrow with temperature oscillating between four and 19 degree Celsius. However, there is a prediction of fog tomorrow.

The city experienced the coldest day temperature last Friday, with the maximum recorded at a low of 16.9 degrees Celsius.

Last month saw the minimum temperature come down to 2.9 degrees Celsius on Christmas morning, the lowest of the season so far.

In the past 11 years, except for 2010, the month of January has recorded the lowest minimum temperature at below five degrees Celsius. The lowest in the past 11 years was on January eight of 2006 when the mercury had dipped to 0.2 deg Celsius.

The record lowest minimum for the month was recorded on January 16, 1935 when mercury touched minus 0.6 degrees Celsius while the record highest maximum was 32.5 degrees on January 28, 2004.

PTI