Delhi shivers at 3.5°C, may be colder today

On Wednesday, the minimum temperature recorded at the Safdarjung observatory, which is considered the official marker for the city, fell to 3.5 degrees Celsius. This was three degrees below the season’s normal.

Delhi on Wednesday recorded the lowest minimum temperature of the season at 3.5 degrees Celsius, India Meteorological Department (IMD) said, adding that it could further drop on Thursday.

A man waits for buses to pass before crossing a road on a foggy morning, at Lodhi Road in New Delhi. (Biplov Bhuyan/HT PHOTO)

On Wednesday, the minimum temperature recorded at the Safdarjung observatory, which is considered the official marker for the city, fell to 3.5 degrees Celsius. This was three degrees below the season’s normal. The maximum temperature was 16.4 degree Celsius, four notches below the season’s normal.

The minimum temperature at the Palam observatory was 5.2 degrees Celsius, while the maximum temperature there settled at 15.2 degree Celsius.

Kuldeep Srivastava, head of IMD’s regional weather forecasting centre, said, “On Thursday, the minimum temperature is expected to go down to around 3 degrees Celsius. From Friday, however, the temperature will start increasing,” Srivastava said.

He said that New Year’s Day is likely to bring relief, when the minimum temperature is forecast to rise to around 5 degrees Celsius and to around 7 degrees Celsius on January 2 and 3.

“A fresh western disturbance is likely to hit the western Himalayan region around January 4, which may bring light rains and thundershowers to the plains, including Delhi. This will be an active western disturbance and along with light rain the temperature will rise,” he said.

Meanwhile, the air quality on Wednesday deteriorated marginally as AQI fell to 290, in the poor category, according to Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) recordings. On Tuesday, the average daily AQI was 265, also in the poor zone.

IMD scientists, however, warned that the pollution levels are expected to rise in the coming days.

VK Soni, head of IMD’s environment monitoring and research centre, said the air quality will deteriorate from Wednesday night and reach the very poor zone.

“For the next two days, the AQI is expected to remain in the very poor zone. But from Saturday, with the impact of an active western disturbance passing over Delhi, the air quality will show a significant improvement,” Soni said.

Union ministry of earth science’s air quality monitoring centre, System of Air Quality and Weather Forecasting and Research (Safar), also said that “calm surface winds with low boundary layer height will lead to extremely low ventilation conditions on December 31 and January 1”.”

“AQI may even touch severe category for a short period on New Year’s eve. A western disturbance is likely to affect the region by January 3, and improved surface winds speed, ventilation and rainfall are likely to bring relief,” the Safar analysis read.