Mallika Dureja
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This winter, it has been very cold in many plain areas of North India. The mercury has dropped dramatically in Delhi, making it colder than many hill stations like Mussoorie and Shimla. The temperature in the national capital, Delhi, dropped to 2.4 degrees Celsius on Tuesday, as the cold wave situation continued.
Hon'ble CM Shri @ArvindKejriwal addressing the Winter Session of the Delhi Assembly | LIVE https://t.co/vSAHXfyJQa
— AAP (@AamAadmiParty) January 17, 2023
The lowest temperature was 2.4 degrees Celsius, which was measured at the Safdarjung observatory in Delhi. Until 5:30 a.m. Tuesday, the temperature was 2 degrees Celsius at Lodhi Road, 2.2 degrees Celsius at Delhi Ridge, and 2.8 degrees Celsius at Ayanagar.
As soon as the temperature hits minus, people start to think about snow. But did you know that it will never snow in Delhi, even if it gets very cold?
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WHY DELHI WON’T EVER WITNESS SNOW?
Even if the temperature drops below 0 degrees Celsius, it may never snow in Delhi. Along with geographical reasons, there are also a few technical reasons that have to do with the weather.
Director General of the India Meteorological Department (IMD), Mrutyunjay Mahapatra, told India Today that snowfall is a type of rain that needs clouds. “Clouds need to form in flat places like Delhi for rain to fall. If the sky is cloudy in Delhi in the winter, the clouds tend to trap heat rather than keep it out “Mahapatra said.
Even at ground level, the temperature needs to be below freezing for snow to fall, which doesn’t happen very often in the nation’s capital.
After it snows in the Himalayas, the cold, snowy winds blow toward the plains of North West India, where the temperature usually drops to minus. Most of the time, this air is dry and doesn’t make clouds. This is why the temperature drops in a lot of places but it doesn’t snow.
MERCURY TO DIP FURTHER
In other cities in north India, like Churu in Rajasthan, the temperature dropped to minus 2.5 degrees Celsius, and in Fatehpur in east Rajasthan, it dropped to minus 3.7 degrees Celsius.
The weather office has warned that a three-day cold wave will drop temperatures by two more degrees. Conditions will get better on January 19, when two western disturbances are likely to hit the area in quick succession.
