Nip in the air as mercury drops in Noida

Noida: The city saw a drop in mercury by four degrees over the past 24 hours as wind direction changed, with the weather department forecasting foggy days ahead with strong winds

Noida: The city saw a drop in mercury by four degrees over the past 24 hours as wind direction changed, with the weather department forecasting foggy days ahead with strong winds.

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The mercury is set to fall further from Monday, the weather department said, while the maximum and minimum will hover around 17 and 10 degrees Celsius, respectively, before that.

“Though the temperatures fell due to the north westerly winds, however, the mercury didn’t fall further due to cloudiness, led by a fresh western disturbance. Cloudy sky conditions will continue till Sunday along with shallow fog in morning hours. This will be followed by strong winds from Monday, that will clear the sky, thereby dropping the mercury,” said Kuldeep Srivastava, head, regional weather forecasting centre, India Meteorological Department (IMD).

Noida and its adjoining regions also saw light rains towards Friday evening due to a fresh western disturbance -- a phenomenon that causes snowfall in the Himalayan states and rains in the national Capital region, however, the rains would seize by Saturday, after which the region would see cloudy sky and moderate fog, said analysts.

On Friday, the minimum temperature in Noida was recorded at 10.6 degrees Celsius, against 14.9 degrees Celsius a day earlier. The maximum temperature also fell three degrees due to the icy cold north-westerly winds in the past 24 hours, with Friday recording a maximum temperature of 15.9 degrees Celsius -- almost a cold day condition -- again 18.4 degrees a day earlier.

The average minimum temperature in NCR, based on the Safdarjung observatory, was recorded at 9.6 degrees Celsius, three degrees above the season’s average, while the maximum was recorded at 16.9 degrees, three degrees below the season’s average.

Meanwhile, due to poor ventilation conditions on Friday, led by cold weather and drizzle that hiked humidity thereby trapping pollutants, the air quality of Ghaziabad and Greater Noida fell to the ‘very poor’ category, a first since Jan 3. The air quality index (AQI) of Noida remained under the ‘poor’ category, where it was the day earlier.

On Friday, the AQI of Noida, on a scale of 0 to 500, as per the central pollution control board (CPCB), was 261 against 236 a day earlier. The AQI of Greater Noida was 312 or ‘very poor’ against 288 a day earlier. The AQI of Ghaziabad was 304 against 294 a day earlier.