Min temp set to drop by 6°C in Delhi, rain likely this weekend

Forecasts by the Centre’s Air Quality Early Warning System for Delhi (EWS) said the air quality is likely to deteriorate again to the “very poor” range on Friday and Saturday.

Minimum temperature in the Capital is expected to dip to around 6°C on Thursday and stay in this range till Saturday, when a fresh western disturbance will start to influence the region again. It is likely bringing light showers on Saturday night and during the day on Sunday with gusty winds of up to 40 km/hr, the India Meteorological Department (IMD) forecast on Wednesday.

The IMD issued a yellow alert for moderate to dense fog in Delhi on Thursday morning, while a yellow alert is also in place for Sunday (HT PHOTO)

Meanwhile, the air quality index in the city, which improved to “poor” on Wednesday is forecast to stay in the category for another. The 4 pm average was recorded at 255 “poor”.

Forecasts by the Centre’s Air Quality Early Warning System for Delhi (EWS) said the air quality is likely to deteriorate again to the “very poor” range on Friday and Saturday. It is expected to oscillate between ”poor” and “very poor” during the first week of February.

The IMD issued a yellow alert for moderate to dense fog in Delhi on Thursday morning, while a yellow alert is also in place for Sunday. “A fresh western disturbance is expected over the weekend. There are chances of a drizzle on Saturday night, with the main rain activity expected on Sunday. Since this western disturbance is coming close to the previous one, the minimum will not dip sharply in the next few days, but could go down to around 6°C,” said Mahesh Palawat, vice president at Skymet.

Delhi’s minimum temperature stood at 12.6°C on Wednesday — four degrees above normal. It was 8°C on Tuesday. “This should drop to a range of 6-8°C on Thursday and hover around this mark till Saturday morning as cold northwesterly winds start blowing again,” said an IMD official, adding February will start on a wet note.

Delhi saw light to moderate showers on Tuesday, which took the monthly total to 25.3mm. This is currently the wettest January in the last four years, since 88.2mm was recorded in January 2022, data shows.

It was also a relatively grey and overcast day, with the maximum settling at 18.4°C – four degrees below normal. It was 16.9°C a day earlier. Forecasts show the maximum will gradually rise and may touch 20°C by Friday and 21°C by Saturday. Rains on Sunday are likely to keep the maximum between 17-19°C, the IMD said.

Meanwhile, moderate to dense fog is expected in the early hours of Thursday. As per the IMD, visibility below 50 metres is termed ‘very dense fog’, between 50 and 200 metres as ‘dense’; 200 to 500 metres ‘moderate’ and 500 to 1,000 metres ‘shallow’ fog.

Delhi-NCR currently has restrictions under stage 2 of the Graded Response Action Plan (Grap). Stage-3 or the ‘severe’ category measures, which halts private construction and prohibits BS-3 petrol and BS-4 diesel vehicles from plying in Delhi – can be invoked if the AQI is forecast to touch 400 in the coming days. Typically, Delhi’s air quality starts to improve from February onwards, with a rise in temperature and favourable meteorological conditions allowing swifter dispersion of pollutants. On the other hand, low temperature and fog slow down dispersion by trapping pollutants close to the surface.