Mercury below 20°C, first time this season

Cold northwesterly winds and clear skies helped push Delhi's minimum temperature below 20 degrees Celsius (°C) for the first time this season, said the India Meteorological Department (IMD).

- Jasjeev Gandhiok

Safdarjung, the city's base weather station, recorded a low of 18.3°C four degrees below normal for this time of the year and the earliest the Capital's minimum temperature has plunged below 20°C in at least a decade. The Ridge station in north Delhi recorded the lowest minimum of 16.5°C.

Temperatures in the city started dipping after monsoon's withdrawal on September 30, when the night temperature was 22.6°C. The minimum fell to 22.1°C on October 1 and 20.1°C the day after that. IMD data since 2013 shows that last year, the minimum temperature fell below the 20°C mark on October 9. The year before that, it happened on October 14. In 2019 and 2020, it fell below 20°C on October 4. In 2013, the minimum temperature fell below 20°C on October 19, data showed. Data from before 2013 was not immediately available.