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Ggm freezes up on coldest recorded day
Gurugram The maximum temperature on Monday was recorded at 9.5 degrees Celsius, making it the coldest December day since 1901, when the India Meteorological Department
Gurugram The maximum temperature on Monday was recorded at 9.5 degrees Celsius, making it the coldest December day since 1901, when the India Meteorological Department (IMD) started maintaining records, said officials.
Monday’s maximum temperature was almost half of what is considered normal for this time of the year, according to the IMD. It was around six degrees Celsius lower than the maximum temperature the previous day.
The city was also enveloped in a thick layer of fog on Monday, with the visibility dropping to zero at 7.30am, as per the Palam manual observatory.
“Monday was the coldest day recorded in the month of December in the city. Monday’s day temperature broke the record of (lowest maximum temperature) 11.3 degrees Celsius, recorded on December 28, 1997,” said Kuldeep Srivastava, senior scientist at the IMD.
The lowest maximum temperature recorded in January was 9.8 degrees Celsius, recorded in 1951 and January 2, 2013. The average maximum temperature for January is 18 degrees Celsius, said IMD officials.
The minimum temperature on Monday fell to 2.6 degrees Celsius from 3.5 degrees Celsius the previous day. The minimum temperature had touched a season-low of 2.4 degrees Celsius on Saturday, as per the IMD.
Officials said similar weather conditions are expected on Tuesday. However, residents might get some relief on Wednesday, said officials. “Because of a western disturbance developing, both the minimum and maximum temperatures are expected to increase by two to three degrees,” an IMD spokesperson said.
As per the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB), the air quality in Gurugram on Monday remained in the ‘very poor’ category, with an Air Quality Index (AQI) reading of 316. The AQI on Sunday was 343.
However, private air quality monitors across the city recorded a much higher AQIs on Monday. An air quality monitor on the Golf Course Extension Road recorded an average AQI of 777, surpassing the ‘severe’ category, on Monday. Another at Sector 54 recorded an AQI of 604 on Monday. A monitor in South City recorded an AQI of 655.
The CPCB monitor does not record particulate matter (PM) 10 data, while the private monitors do, hence, the difference in the data, said experts. PM10 levels on Monday, as per the private AQI monitors, were higher than PM2.5 levels.
As per private monitors, PM10 levels were more than 350ug/m3 on Monday at more than three locations. PM2.5 levels on Monday, as per the CPCB monitor, were recorded at a maximum of 299ug/m3. The daily safe limit for PM2.5 and PM10 are 60ug/m3 and 100ug/m3, respectively.
Delhi, Faridabad, Noida and Ghaziabad recorded ‘severe’ air quality on Monday, as per the CPCB bulletin.
Experts attributed the ‘very poor’ air quality to the fall in temperature, low-speed winds and the direction of the wind, which is blowing pollutants into Gurugram instead of blowing them away.
Air quality is likely to be in the ‘severe’ category or the upper-end of the ‘very poor’ category on Tuesday, as per the CPCB’s prediction. It is likely to improve from Wednesday evening due to strong winds and rain, said CPCB officials.
