Delhi wakes up to a foggy Monday morning, air quality ‘very poor’

Though Delhi saw a thick blanket of fog on Monday, Met officials said the morning sky is expected to remain clear over the next few days. Pollution levels, however, are expected to spike further.

The national capital saw dense fog on Monday morning with “very poor” air quality levels.

With low wind speed and high moisture in air, Delhi recorded a minimum temperature of 7 degree Celsius on Monday which was two degrees below normal. (Sanchit Khanna / HT Photo)

With low wind speed and high moisture in air, Delhi recorded a minimum temperature of 7 degree Celsius on Monday which was two degrees below normal. The maximum temperature, however, was 22.6 degree Celsius which is normal.

“The sky will remain clear in the morning over the next few days with mist during the day. The maximum and minimum temperatures will stay around 24 and 10 degree Celsius, respectively,” Met department officials said. Several trains were running behind schedule due to fog, a railway official said.

Delhi’s air quality index — a measure of pollutants on the scale 0-500 — was 306 at 9.15am falling in “very poor” category. The pollution levels are expected to spike further over the next two days, according to a forecast by SAFAR — the official pollution forecasting system under the Union ministry of earth sciences.

On Sunday too, a dense fog had engulfed Delhi. At least 55 incoming trains were running behind schedule, 19 had to be rescheduled and 18 were cancelled till 6pm on Sunday, according to officials. Flight schedules, however, remained unaffected.