Delhi shivers as mercury dips to 2.9°C, coldwave grips isolated pockets

The city’s air quality showed marginal improvement and remained at the higher end of the ‘poor’ category.

Delhi continued to reel under biting cold on Sunday, with isolated pockets of the city recording coldwave conditions as the mercury dipped to as low as 2.9°C, the India Meteorological Department (IMD) said. Safdarjung, the city’s base station, recorded a minimum temperature of 4.8°C on Sunday, after logging a season’s lowest of 4.2°C a day earlier.

Vehicles commute amid smog and cold wave conditions in New Delhi. (ANI)

Other parts of the capital were colder, prompting the IMD to declare isolated coldwave conditions. Ayanagar recorded a minimum of 2.9°C, Palam 3°C and the Ridge station 3.7°C.

The IMD has forecast the continuation of coldwave conditions in the capital on Monday as well.

The weather department defines a ‘coldwave’ when the minimum temperature falls below 10°C and is 4.5°C or more below normal, or when the actual minimum temperature drops below 4°C.

“Coldwave conditions were realised over Delhi as Palam, Ridge and Ayanagar reported minimum temperatures less than 4.1°C,” said IMD scientist Krishna Mishra, adding that a yellow alert remains in place for Monday with coldwave conditions likely to persist.

On the maximum temperature front, Delhi recorded a high of 20.2°C on Saturday. However, icy winds are expected to keep the maximum temperature lower, in the range of 16–18°C on Sunday.

Meanwhile, the city’s air quality showed marginal improvement and remained at the higher end of the ‘poor’ category. The 24-hour rolling average air quality index (AQI) stood at 295 (poor) at 8am, compared with 346 (very poor) at 4pm on Saturday, as wind speeds picked up.