Delhi wakes up to ‘cold day’; yellow alert issued for today and tomorrow

“Cold day” conditions are predicted to remain in Delhi for the next two days, with a yellow alert in place for Tuesday and Wednesday

NEW DELHI: Delhi is likely to witness a cold day on Tuesday with the minimum temperature likely to be 7 degrees Celsius and the maximum at 16 degrees Celsius, according to the India Meteorological Department’s (IMD).

A view of the barely visible India Gate due to dense fog at Rajpath in New Delhi on Monday. (ANI)

“Cold day” conditions are predicted to remain in Delhi for the next two days, with a yellow alert in place for Tuesday and Wednesday.

The IMD declares a “cold day” if the maximum temperature is over 4.5 degrees Celsius below normal, with the minimum also below the 10-degree mark. A yellow alert is generally issued to warn people about a particular weather event that may impact them severely.

According to the IMD’s weekly weather forecast, the temperature is expected to hover in the same range on Tuesday on Wednesday while a dip in the minimum temperature could start expected from Thursday. IMD officials said the cold conditions are unlikely to last long since wind speeds are likely to pick up over the coming days.

On the pollution front, Delhi’s air quality was in the “poor” category on Tuesday morning with the hourly air quality index (AQI) at 7am registering 255, according to the Central Pollution Control Board. On Monday, the average 24-hour AQI was 241, which was also in the “poor” zone.

The CPCB classifies an AQI of zero to 50 as “good”, 51-100 as “satisfactory”, 101-200 as “moderate”, 201-300 as “poor”, 301-400 as “very poor” and above 401 as “severe”.

On Monday, the Union ministry of earth science’s air quality monitoring centre, System of Air Quality and Weather Forecasting and Research (Safar), said the air quality has degraded marginally due to the combined influence of a dust storm and a western disturbance.