Mercury dips: Monday the coldest day this winter in Gurugram

The city saw its coldest day yet of the season on Monday with the minimum temperature dipping to 2

The city saw its coldest day yet of the season on Monday with the minimum temperature dipping to 2.4°C, which was 2.9 degrees lower than the 5.3°C recorded on Sunday, data from the India Meteorological Department (IMD) showed. Cold conditions prevailed through the day on Monday, with the maximum temperature settling at 16.8°C, which is normal for this time of the year. On Sunday, the maximum temperature in the city was 16.3°C.

Gurugram, India-January 16, 2023: People are seen wearing warm clothes on a cold winter morning at Khandsa road near DAV high school, in Gurugram, India, on Monday, 16 January 023. (Photo by Parveen Kumar/Hindustan Times)(Pic to go with Debashish Karmakar's story)

However, there was no fog in the morning and the sun stayed the course for the day, giving some relief to residents. Manmohan Singh, director, IMD Chandigarh, said the lowest temperature of the season was recorded in Gurugram on Monday and it was because of this that the cold kept a steady grip on the city, despite the sun being out.

The weather department said cold weather will continue in Gurugram and in Haryana and Punjab for the next two days. The cold wave conditions will abate from January 19 owing to two western disturbances that have formed over the Himalayan region, the IMD said.

“Cold conditions are expected to continue due to a dip in minimum temperature for the next two days but the cold wave will abate from January 19 and the situation will improve,” Singh said.

He also said shallow fog will be seen in most parts of Punjab and Haryana, including Gurugram in the coming days.

The IMD in Delhi on Monday said the minimum temperatures could fall further by two degrees till Tuesday morning. However, the temperature is expected to rise by four to six degrees between January 19 and January 21, they said.

The IMD further observed that minimum temperatures in Haryana, Chandigarh and Delhi have hovered between 3-5°C on Monday. They further said fresh western disturbances are likely to affect the western Himalayan region from the night of January 18 and, as a result, cold wave condition are likely to abate from January 19.

The air quality in the city was recorded in the “poor” category on Monday with a 24 hour average air quality index (AQI) of 207. The air quality on Sunday was in the “moderate” category with an AQI of 118.

The System of Air Quality and Weather Forecasting and Research (Safar) said on Monday that air quality is likely to worsen in Delhi-NCR and remain in the ”poor” or ”lower end of very poor” for the next three days as pollutants are likely to accumulate due to winds from the north-west direction, where cold wave conditions are prevalent, leading to lower night/early morning temperatures and isolated fog occurrences.