Coldest Holi in five years made people prefer dry colours

By Rajnish Singh

New Delhi, March 14 (IANS) It was mostly a dry Holi, with gulal powder in and water balloons and pichkaris largely avoided, as the national capital celebrated its coldest festival of colours in the last five years with the minimum temperature at 9.4 degrees Celsius on Monday.

Adults refrained from throwing coloured water on each other and parents asked children not to play too much with water balloons and water guns.

The dip in mercury led most people to choose powder colours in place of coloured water. Water balloons, usually the norm on Holi, were mostly missing and the celebration concluded by 4 p.m. in most places in the national capital.

An India Meteorological Department (IMD) official told IANS that the minimum temperature on Holi was 9.4 degrees Celsius on Monday -- which ranged from two to seven degrees below the temperatures noted in the last five years.

The minimum temperature on Holi in 2016 was 16 degrees Celsius, it stood at 11 degrees Celsius in 2015, 16 in 2014, 17 in 2013 and 13 degrees Celsius in 2012.

Mayank Upadhyay, a resident of Mayur Vihar in east Delhi, told IANS that he asked his children not to play with water and only stick to dry colours as a cold breeze was blowing in the city, causing a dip in temperature.

"It was a very cold Holi compared to last six-seven years. As the season is changing, it was not good for the children as well as for elders to use coloured water. Not only my children, my neighbours and I too did not use water while celebrating the festival. We only used powder colours," Upadhyay said.

An employee in a multinational company, Mukesh Kumar Singh said: "We generally play Holi using coloured water. I waited till 1 p.m. hoping it would get warmer, but the cold wind continued and I had to end the celebration within 15 minutes."

Neha Singla, a student of Delhi University, said the cold weather really affected their enjoyment of Holi.

"We preferred to play with powder colours unlike the past years when we would drench each other with coloured water and remain the whole day in wet clothes on Holi," Singla told IANS.

The IMD department said that western disturbance -- a storm system originating from the Caspian Sea and moving across the Afghanistan-Pakistan region, had caused rain and snowfall in the Indian subcontinent's north-west region, causing the temperature to dip on Holi this year.

It said the weather in Delhi will remain pleasant this week as the western disturbance continues in hilly areas.

According to Skymet Weather, the western disturbance has already approached the Western Himalayas. "This system is affecting the northern plains including Delhi and National Capital Region (NCR)."

Meanwhile, as per the weather history of March 13 in previous years, the Skymet department said this year the minimum temperature was very low.

In 2016, the minimum temperature on that day stood at 17 degrees Celsius, in 2015 it was 15 degrees Celsius, while in 2014, it was recorded at 12 degrees Celsius.

The weather took a turn on March 9 when light showers in the city caused the mercury to drop by 9 degrees Celsius in the evening.