Day mercury down to 20.6°C as smog keeps grip on Delhi mornings

Delhi’s air quality index (AQI) has deteriorated slightly in the last 24 hours, but it remained in the lower end of the ‘very poor’ category, with a reading of 342 recorded by the Central Pollution Control Board’s national bulletin at 4 pm

Delhi witnessed dense fog early Thursday morning with the city recording the season’s lowest maximum temperature at 20.6 degrees Celsius, one degree below the normal for this time of year, India Meteorological Department (IMD) said.

People huddle around a fire on Thursday morning at Anand Vihar ISBT in New Delhi. (Sanjeev Verma/HT Photo)

The department said that the visibility dropped to 200 metres at both Safdarjung and Palam on Thursday morning, and added that a yellow alert has been issued until December 26. During this duration, IMD said, Delhi will record dense fog, and a dip in both maximum and minimum temperature.

While Safdarjung station provides representational data for Delhi, other stations recorded an even lower maximum, dipping below 20-degrees at Mayur Vihar, Najafgarh, Jafarpur, Mungeshpur, Ayanagar, Ridge and Palam stations. The lowest was recorded at Mungeshpur, where the maximum did not cross 16.5 degrees. Delhi’s minimum temperature also stayed one degree below normal, staying at 7.2 degrees Celsius. So far, the city has logged a lowest minimum of 6 degrees Celsius, recorded on December 17.

According to the IMD forecast, the maximum temperature in Delhi is likely to hover around the 20-degree mark for the next two days. However, it may dip to 19 degrees Celsius on December 25, the forecast said. Delhi’s minimum is likely to be around 6-7 degrees Celsius in the next 48 hours, before dipping to 5 degrees on December 25, IMD said.

“This spell of dense fog is set to continue as temperatures are low and we are seeing calm winds at night, which is ideal for fog formation. Northwesterly winds are bringing adequate moisture from Punjab. Until December 26, there is likelihood of dense fog formation. The next western disturbance may come after December 27,” said RK Jenamani, scientist at IMD. He added that on Thursday, the lowest visibility was recorded between 2.30am and 8.30am.

Mahesh Palawat, vice-president at Skymet meteorology said the western disturbance expected ahead is not likely to be strong, and therefore, there may not be any drastic change in weather conditions. “Wind speed has increased slightly, so the fog may become shallow in places, but nothing much may change,” he said.

Delhi’s air quality index (AQI) has deteriorated slightly in the last 24 hours, but it remained in the lower end of the ‘very poor’ category, with a reading of 342 recorded by the Central Pollution Control Board’s national bulletin at 4 pm. In comparison, the AQI had been 328 (very poor) on Wednesday. Forecasts show the air quality in Delhi is likely to remain ‘very poor’ until the end of the month.

“The air quality is likely to deteriorate marginally, but will remain in the ‘very poor’ category on December 23. The air quality is likely to improve after that, but it will still stay in the lower end of the ‘very poor’ category on December 24 and 25. The outlook for subsequent six days shows that the air quality is likely to remain in between ‘very poor’ to the ‘poor’ category,” said the Early Warning System (EWS) for Delhi, a forecasting model used by the Commission for Air Quality Management (CAQM).