Brrr...the big chill is back in the Capital

Brace yourself for some nippier days ahead. Delhi's winter has officially overstayed its welcome.

On Saturday, the day temperature — represented through the maximum temperature — was 16.8 degrees Celsius, which made it the 'felt temperature' during the day. It was the coldest in the last 10 years. The minimum temperature was three degrees below normal at 5.6 degrees Celcius.

In fact, the average minimum temperature in the first week of February this year was around 6 degrees Celsius, whereas the figures for the same period last year were beyond 12 degrees Celsius. BBC Weather on Saturday predicted 3 degrees Celsius for Sunday. Weather experts, too, said Sunday could well see the mercury fall to the 3-degree mark.

Weather forecasting agencies in India and abroad have declared that the cold wave has returned to the Capital and that the

mercury is expected to hover around 3-4 degrees in the next couple of days.

The National Centre for Medium Range Weather Forecasting on Saturday said: "Temperatures are expected to fall by about 3-4 degree Celsius. Most parts of Northwest India are likely to experience cold wave conditions during the next 3-4 days."

This is turning out to be one of the coldest February ever. Records show that it is definitely the coldest in the last four years.

"Temperatures will fall further because there has been a good amount of persistent snowfall and rain in the Northern states," said SC Bhan, director, Safdarjung unit of India Meteorological Department (IMD).

Adding to February's chill are the icy winds from the hill states. Meteorologists call it the Wind Chill factor, which determines the "felt temperature". "If the wind is blowing at 20 kilometers per hour, then the felt temperature will be 50 per cent chillier than the recorded air temperature," said OP Sharma, chief meteorologist at SkyMet, a private weather services company. This year, Sharma said, the felt temperature was unusually low because the Arctic, from where the wind blows, has become very cold.

"The kind of condition that is building up at the hills, a drop by 3 degrees is not impossible," Bhan said.