Intense cold continued to trouble Delhiites as icy winds refused to subside and the minimum temperature reached the season’s lowest, settling at a chilling 1.9 degree Celsius. It is after five years that the minimum temperature dipped below 2 degrees in the city. “Earlier, it was in January 2008 that the temperature touched 1.9 degrees. Fog enveloped the city in the morning with visibility dropping to 400 meters at 8.30 am. But it cleared in less than two hours,” said a senior official of the India Meteorological Department. “Today’s minimum was five degrees below normal and down from yesterday’s 2.9 degree Celsius. The maximum temperature today also registered a significant slump, recorded at 11.8 deg C—nine degrees below the average for this time of the season. Earlier in the week on Wednesday, the Capital witnessed the coldest day in 44 years when the maximum plummeted to 9.8 degrees. The Delhi government has already directed city schools to be closed till January 12, keeping the inclement weather in view. “The morning hours are the worst. It is quite a task for children to get ready for school and report on time. The move will definitely provide some relief,” said, Pratibha, a schoolteacher. Even as the rail traffic was hit today due to the cold wave across north India, operations at Indira Gandhi International Airport remained mostly uninterrupted. “Four flights were cancelled and five rescheduled due to bad weather at the destination airports. We implemented low visibility procedures for nearly 3 hours during the wee hours today, however no flights were disrupted or delayed due to bad weather or foggy conditions in the Capital,” read an update from the airport authority. “Thirteen trains were cancelled and nearly 60 trains got delayed by two to 12 hours, the northern railway said. Nearly 25 trains were rescheduled,” said the Northern Railway spokesperson. The weatherman predicts mist and shallow fog again, tomorrow morning with the maximum and minimum temperatures likely to hover around three to 12 degree Celsius respectively.