Easterly winds, sunshine bring relief for Delhi; cold wave abates

The sun shone bright and a layer of fog that enveloped Delhi dissipated on Tuesday, bringing some relief from a cold wave that battered the city for over two weeks.

The prolonged cold wave and absence of adequate sunshine due to a "very dense fog" had caused the mercury to plummet drastically, making December the second-coldest and Monday the coldest recorded day (with a maximum of 9.4 degrees Celsius) since 1901.

Kuldeep Srivastava, head of the India Meteorological Department's (IMD's) regional weather forecasting centre, said Delhi witnessed another 'cold day' on Tuesday.

With this, December has recorded 18 consecutive 'cold days' or an 18-day 'cold spell', the maximum after 17 cold days in December 1997.

However, easterly winds, gusting up to 14-15 kilometres per hour since Monday evening, pushed fog towards Punjab and Haryana, revealing clear, blue skies over Delhi, Mahesh Palawat, a senior scientist at private forecasting agency Skymet Weather, said.

It caused the minimum temperature to go up from 2.8 degrees Celsius on Monday to 4.7 degrees Celsius on Tuesday. The maximum also rose to 14.6 degrees Celsius.

Palwat said the "worst period" was over for now and icy winds won't continue from northwest for long due to "on and off" western disturbances.

The IMD said there would be "no cold wave in Delhi till January 4 (Saturday) and temperatures will rise further".

There will be moderate fog in Delhi on Wednesday and very light rain on Thursday.