Gurugram: Minimum temperature at 5.7°C, shallow fog to prevail

The city recorded maximum and minimum temperatures of 14

The city recorded maximum and minimum temperatures of 14.2 degrees Celsius and 5.7 degrees Celsius, respectively, even as the air quality continued to remain in the very poor zone for a fourth consecutive day, with a reading of 330 on the Central Pollution Control Board’s (CPCB) daily air quality index (AQI) bulletin.

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Kuldeep Srivastava, head of India Meteorological Department’s (IMD) regional weather forecasting centre, said that there could be a rise in temperature next week with a change in wind direction.

As per IMD’s weekly forecast, the maximum and minimum temperatures are expected to hover around 7 degrees Celsius and 21 degrees Celsius, respectively, on Monday. As per the IMD’s forecast, shallow fog is expected on Monday. The IMD’s automatic weather station (AWS) for Gurugram did not record the minimum temperature on Sunday and the reading was taken from the IMD’s AWS in Palam of Delhi.

The air quality worsened marginally from a reading of 316 recorded a day before.

Experts said that the wind speed had picked up Sunday and improvement in the air quality is likely over the next few days. Vijay Soni, the head of IMD’s Environment Monitoring Research Centre, said that the wind direction had changed from westerly to easterly. “Fog will prevail tomorrow as well. The air quality is expected to improve since we expect stronger winds in the coming days,” said Soni. He said that a western disturbance is expected around January 22, but there is no expectation of rain on account of it.

As per the early air quality warning system for Delhi-NCR, “Air quality over Delhi-NCR is likely to remain in the lower end of the very poor category on 18.01.2021. The air quality is likely to remain in the lower end of very poor to poor category 19.01.2021.”

Subsequently, over the next five days, the air quality is largely expected to remain in the poor category.