Noida sees rise in night temperature, mercury to drop by Saturday

Noida: The city on Thursday witnessed a rise of three degrees Celsius in minimum temperature, while parts of it saw light drizzle thereby dropping the day temperature

Noida: The city on Thursday witnessed a rise of three degrees Celsius in minimum temperature, while parts of it saw light drizzle thereby dropping the day temperature. The city has seen the minimum temperature rising by seven degrees Celsius since Tuesday.

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According to the India Meteorological Department (IMD), the minimum temperature for Noida on Thursday was recorded at 15 degrees Celsius against 12.1 degrees a day earlier and 8.4 degrees on Tuesday. The maximum temperature, however, dropped due to thundery development and drizzling. Noida recorded a maximum temperature of 23 degrees Celsius against 25.2 degrees Celsius a day earlier and 27.2 degrees on Tuesday.

IMD said that while the minimum and maximum temperatures will continue to be well above the season’s average, the mercury is likely to fall from Saturday due to return of the cold north-westerly winds.

According to weather analysts, Noida saw light drizzle – too low to measure – that impacted the minimum temperature slightly. The current active western disturbance – a weather system that causes rains or snowing in the Himalayan states and subsequent rains or thundery development over the national capital region (NCR) – will, however, pass through the region by Friday, further leading to change in the wind directions from warmer easterly to colder northerly.

“Noida saw very light rains on Thursday. But, the sky will get clear on Friday. There will be a slight drop in mercury on Friday, and the minimum temperature is likely to fall considerably and hover around seven degrees by Saturday,” said Kuldeep Srivastava, head, regional weather forecasting centre, IMD.

For NCR, the average minimum and maximum temperatures, based on Safdarjung observatory, were 12.4 degrees Celsius and 23.2 degrees Celsius against 10.4 degrees and 26.1 degrees a day earlier. The Safdarjung area also recorded an average rain of 0.5mm, IMD said. The minimum and maximum temperatures on Friday are expected to hover around 12 and 24 degrees Celsius, respectively.

Meanwhile, the air quality of the region saw remarkable improvement as wind speed increased. However, the air quality remained under ‘very poor’ category.

“The wind speed further increased on Thursday and the maximum speed recorded was 20 kmph. This led to further improvement in the air quality.” Srivastava added.

According to the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB), the air quality index (AQI) of Noida on Thursday was 322 against 339 a day earlier. Greater Noida’s AQI was 312 against 345 a day earlier, while Ghaziabad reported an AQI of 338 against 388 on Wednesday.

An AQI between 101 to 200 is considered ‘moderate’, between 201 and 300 is ‘poor’, between 301 and 400 is ‘very-poor’ and above 400 is considered ‘severe’.

The three cities – Noida, Greater Noida and Ghaziabad – had been suffering either ‘very poor’ or ‘severe’ levels of air quality since January 13, while the best air quality last realised was under ‘moderate’ category on January 4.

According to the System of Air Quality and Weather Forecasting and Research (SAFAR), the surface winds will be supportive of better air quality. “Surface winds are high and easterly in direction. Under the approaching western disturbance, isolated rain is expected tomorrow. AQI is likely to further improve to the poor category tomorrow, and may touch moderate for a shorter period. The improved AQI is likely to stay for a couple of days,” said a SAFAR statement on Thursday.