Delhi witnessed a sharp drop in temperature on Thursday, 30 December as the Safdarjung Observatory, considered the official marker for the national capital, plunged four notches below normal to 3.4 degrees Celsius.
With the year drawing to a close, the weather department predicted the cold wave conditions to prevail till 3 January.
In Delhi's Ayanagar and Narela, the automatic weather stations reported minimum temperatures of 3.8 degrees Celsius and 3.2 degrees Celsius, respectively, PTI reported.
As per the weather department, the cold wave is predicted to retreat from 4 January in light of an active western disturbance causing fairly widespread rainfall and snowfall over Jammu and Kashmir and Himachal Pradesh between 4 and 7 January.
A cold wave is declared in the plains only if the minimum temperature falls below 10 degree Celsius, and is accompanied by a fall in the maximum temperature by 4.5-6.4 degree Celsius from what is considered normal for that period of the year.
Earlier in the month, Delhi had witnessed a dip to 3.2 degrees Celsius, the lowest temperature in the winter seasons so far.
(With inputs from PTI.)
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