Cold wave conditions to return from Sunday, says IMD

Gurugram: Cold weather conditions loosened its grip in Gurugram on Thursday, with the city recording a minimum temperature of 10

Gurugram: Cold weather conditions loosened its grip in Gurugram on Thursday, with the city recording a minimum temperature of 10.2 degrees Celsius.

Gurugram, India-January 12, 2023: People sitting around a bonfire to protect themselves from winter on a cold foggy morning at Labour chowk near Bhuteshwar Mandir, in Gurugram, India, on Thursday, 12 January 2023. (Photo by Parveen Kumar/Hindustan Times)

The city also got respite from the dense fog that has been witnessed for the past several days. The weather department said that there will be no major change in the minimum temperature for the next couple of days, but cold wave conditions are likely to return from Sunday again.

The India Meteorological Department (IMD)on Thursday said that a fresh spell of ‘dense’ to ‘very dense’ fog and isolated cold wave conditions will prevail over northwest India from Sunday onwards.

The IMD’s Chandigarh centre said that the minimum temperature in Gurugram on Thursday was 10.2 degrees Celsius, while the maximum was 19.7 degrees Celsius.

The weather department said that there will be no significant change in the minimum temperature over most parts of northwest India in the next 24 hours. However, the weather will change and minimum temperatures are expected to fall by three to five degrees by Sunday evening.

“Severe cold wave is likely to grip some parts of north Rajasthan and cold wave conditions in isolated pockets of Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Punjab, Haryana and Chandigarh on January 15, 16 and 17,” the IMD forecast said.

Meanwhile, the air quality in Gurugram was recorded in the ‘very poor’ category on Thursday with the 24-hour average air quality index (AQI) at 317. It was in the ‘poor’ category on Wednesday with an AQI of 254.

The System of Air Quality and Weather Forecasting and Research (Safar) in its daily forecast on Thursday said that the air quality over Delhi-NCR is likely to improve but will be within the ‘very poor’ category for the next three days due to low temperature (helps in the accumulation of pollutants) and moderate surface winds (moderate dispersion of pollutants).

“There is a likelihood of a rain spell on January 13 due to a cyclonic circulation over the northwest region that helps in washing out pollutants and improving the air quality,” Safar said.