Delhi shivers as mercury drops to 2 degrees

New Delhi, Jan 12 (IANS) The national capital continued to be in the grip of a cold wave on Thursday as the mercury dipped to two degrees Celsius at various places, a weather official said.

Keeping up with its falling trend for the fifth consecutive day, Delhi experienced the coldest morning this season with minimum temperatures dropping further than on Wednesday, when it recorded four degrees Celsius.

At the Safdarjung observatory, the temperature recorded stood at 3.4 degrees Celsius, four notches below the season's average, while at Lodhi Road the temperature recorded was at 2 degrees Celsius, the official said.

The temperature at Safdarjung is considered the official reading for the city.

The temperatures recorded at various places were -- 4.4 degrees at Palam, 4.9 degrees at Aya Nagar and 5.5 degrees Celsius at Delhi Ridge observatory, the official from the India Meteorological Department (IMD) told IANS.

Since January 7, the mercury has been dipping steadily and has dropped more than 10 degrees in just five days as the cold wave engulfed several regions of north India.

The weather office also said that the cold wave like situation would continue in Delhi at least till Sunday and the minimum and maximum temperatures may increase after January 15.

The IMD official said it would be a partly cloudy day on Thursday with light fog through out.

The maximum temperature of the day was likely to hover around 17 degrees Celsius.

Humidity at 8.30 a.m. was 100 per cent with the visibility recorded up to 800 metres.

Wednesday's maximum temperature was recorded 17.2 while the minimum settled at 4 degrees Celsius, both three notches below the season's average.

A total of 26 trains were running late due to the dense fog in adjoining areas of Delhi and other parts of Northern India.

"Eight trains had to be rescheduled while seven trains have been cancelled due to the fog," said an official statement.