Thursday season’s coldest yet in Delhi at 6.2°C

Delhi’s air quality, meanwhile, remained in the very poor zone for the eighth consecutive day, with the city’s 24-hour average AQI reading at 326

Cold northwesterly winds on Thursday pushed Delhi’s minimum temperature to 6.2 degrees Celsius (°C), the lowest so far this season and two degrees below normal for this time of year.

A smoggy and cold morning in Anand Vihar in New Delhi on Thursday. (Sanjeev Verma/HT Photo)

Thursday’s minimum was more than a degree lower than 7.4°C on Wednesday, and the ninth straight day that the day’s low was in the single digits, data from the India Meteorological Department (IMD) showed.

Before this, the lowest minimum for the season was 6.5°C on Monday.

The winds however remained calm for much of the day, touching a maximum speed of 10kmph at 3.30pm.

“We were expecting wind speeds to pick up further on Thursday, but now it’s likely that it will increase by Friday,” said an IMD official.

The low temperatures also spread a thin mist through the Capital, with the visibility at Palam dropping to 600 metres at 6.30am. However, the fog dissipated after sunrise and flight operations were unaffected.

Weather officials said the minimum temperature will dip marginally to around 6°C on Friday and further over the next few days.

The maximum temperature on Thursday was 24.1°C, a degree above normal, and a slight drop from the 24.6°C recorded the previous day.

Delhi’s air quality, meanwhile, remained in the “very poor” zone for the eighth straight day. The city’s 24-hour average air quality index (AQI) reading was 326, according to the national bulletin released by the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) — an improvement from Wednesday’s 378 (very poor), which was the highest AQI of the month.

Officials said low temperatures were leading to slower winds at night, in effect worsening the air quality. Marginally faster winds on Thursday helped clear out pollutants to some extent.

The Capital’s pollution levels are likely to remain “very poor” till December 17, according to the Early Warning System (EWS) for Delhi — an air quality forecasting model under the ministry of earth sciences.