Cold winds impact Delhi-NCR, temperature drops below 16°C

The Capital on Thursday clocked a minimum temperature of 15.9 degrees Celsius (C)-three degrees below normal and the coolest October 19 over the last five years. This was also the earliest that Delhi's minimum dropped below 16°C in the run-up to winter since 2014, when the temperature dipped to 15.6°C on October 17, showed India Meteorological Department (IMD) data available from 2011.

The minimum on October 19 in 2022 was 17°C, while it was 19.9°C in 2021, 16°C in 2020, 19.8°C in 2019 and 17.8°C in 2018.

Another western disturbance is expected to hit northwest India over the weekend, IMD said, but added that it is unlikely to bring the Capital much rain and will impact temperatures only marginally.

The cooler nights are largely due to cool, northwesterly winds sweeping through the region, said Met officials. These also helped keep the day relatively cool, with a maximum temperature of 30.4°C, two degrees below normal and marginally lower than 30.7°C on Wednesday.

"We can expect the minimum to remain around 16°C till Saturday and then gradually rise to 17-18°C by Sunday and Monday.

But since the fresh western disturbance will be feeble, we will not see a spike in nighttime temperature," said Kuldeep Srivastava, scientist at IMD.