Delhi sees another cold day; air quality still ‘very poor’

Delhi continued to experience cold day conditions with the minimum temperature on Friday touching 4 degrees Celsius, which is five degrees below normal, according to India Meteorological Department (IMD)

Delhi continued to experience cold day conditions with the minimum temperature on Friday touching 4 degrees Celsius, which is five degrees below normal, according to India Meteorological Department (IMD).

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The 4 degrees Celsius was recorded at the Safdarjung weather station, which is considered the official marker for the city. The maximum temperature at Safdarjung was 20.8 degrees Celsius, two degrees below normal.

Kuldeep Srivastava, head of the IMD’s regional weather forecasting centre, said the temperature will rise briefly on Saturday before dipping again and remaining below normal till February 1.

“The minimum temperature likely to be around 3-4 degrees Celsius till February 1. After that, there is a possibility of the mercury rising slightly,” Srivastava said.

With calm winds and low temperature, the air quality has also deteriorated. On Friday, the overall air quality index (AQI) for Delhi was 387, in the ”very poor” category. On Thursday, the AQI was 357, also in the ”very poor” zone.

IMD has forecasted a significant but brief improvement in AQI on Saturday.

Union ministry of earth science’ air quality monitoring centre, System of Air Quality and Weather Forecasting and Research (Safar), said surface winds on Friday were slow and were blowing from the south-west side of Delhi. The wind speed is likely to improve on Saturday.

“An improvement in ventilation index is forecasted for the next two days, AQI is likely to marginally improve to the middle or lower end of the “very poor” category on Saturday. AQI is forecasted to marginally deteriorate towards the middle end of the “very poor” category on January 31 and February 1,” the Safar forecast said.