NEW DELHI: Delhi froze to the bone on Monday as a once in-16-years December chill swept the city. Gloomy overcast conditions, a persistent fog and icy northwesterly winds combined to make it the coldest December day since 2003 with the mercury touching a maximum of 12.9 degrees Celsius – a gaping 10.3 degrees below normal.Track the pollution level in your cityThe met office described it as a ‘severe cold day’, when the maximum temperature was way below the normal level. The last time Delhi saw day temperatures lower than on Monday was on December 25, 2003, when a maximum of 12.6 degrees C was recorded.Brace for similar weather over the next two days, the met office said. The minimum temperature on Monday was 10.2 degrees C, which meant the mercury moved just 2.7 notches through the day. Met officials said very low cloud cover across the northern plains blocked sunlight and strong winds raised the wind-chill factor, turning the city into a virtual icebox.“The dense fog in the plains has not lifted completely and got trapped in the cloud cover. What made it really chilly was extremely cold winds from Himachal Pradesh and J&K,” said Kuldeep Srivastava, scientist at IMD.Brrr... Mercury may dip to 7°C todayShallow Fog Seen In The Capital, Visibility Falls To 300 Metres At PalamR K Jenamani, met head at the IGI airport said a number of places in northwestern India have recorded the coldest day-time temperatures on Monday. Very low maximum temperatures were recorded across Delhi NCR, Chandigarh, Punjab, Haryana, northern Rajasthan and parts of west-Uttar Pradesh as well. “Delhi saw a 16-year old record broken with the lowest maximum temperature recorded since 2003,” Jenamani said.Jenamani said most parts of Delhi-NCR recorded shallow to moderate fog on Monday with the visibility falling to 300 metres at Palam.The ‘cold day’ in IMD’s classification is when the maximum temperature remains 4.4 degrees below the day’s normal. A ‘severe cold day’ is when the maximum temperature is more than 6.4 degrees below nor mal.Other stations in Delhi recorded even lower daytime temperatures, with the Delhi University station recording a maximum of 11.7 degrees Celsius, Pusa 11.8 degrees, Mungeshpur 11.6 degrees, Palam 12.5 degrees and Najafgarh 11.9 degrees.Delhi is likely to see a maximum of 14 degrees Celsius on Tuesday, with the minimum dropping to 7 degrees Celsius, officials said.The low temperatures however had not disrupted Delhi’s air quality which was recorded in the ‘moderate’ category with a reading of 186 according to CPCB’s daily index. Experts said good wind speed helped disperse pollutants with pollution levels falling in the last 48 hours. Data according to Central Pollution Control Board’s control room showed Delhi-NCR’s average PM 2.5 levels were 83 micrograms per cubic metre. The average PM 10 levels were meanwhile was 132 micrograms per cubic metre, the data showed.