Gurugram shivers as mercury hits season’s lowest of 4.5°C

The city recorded a minimum temperature of 4.5 degrees Celsius on Tuesday — the lowest of the season so far — nearly five degrees below the normal and six degrees

The city recorded a minimum temperature of 4.5 degrees Celsius on Tuesday — the lowest of the season so far — nearly five degrees below the normal and six degrees below the previous day’s minimum temperature of 10.5 degrees Celsius. The maximum temperature on Tuesday stood at 17.5 degrees Celsius, five degrees below the normal and a slight drop from the previous day’s maximum temperature of 18 degrees Celsius.

HT Image

Officials of the India Meteorological Department (IMD) said that cold winds from snow-capped mountains were responsible for the drop in mercury. As per the IMD’s weekly forecast, the maximum temperature will hover around 20 degrees Celsius while the minimum temperature is expected to stay at 6 degrees on Wednesday. As per the weekly forecast, clear skies will prevail on Wednesday.

Kuldeep Srivastava, head of IMD’s regional weather forecasting centre, said, “When the maximum temperature is 4.5 degrees below the normal, we say that it’s a cold day,” said Srivastava. He said that colder days could be expected this week.

Another IMD official said that the minimum temperature could touch three degrees Celsius on Wednesday. “The temperature might settle at three degrees Celsius on Wednesday and hover around four degrees Celsius on Thursday and Friday, after which it might increase a little. The dip in temperature is primarily due to heavy snowfall in northern regions. There is no prediction of rain for now,” said the official.

Air quality in the city stayed in the “moderate” category for the second consecutive day on Tuesday. Gurugram recorded an air quality index (AQI) of 184 (moderate), a deterioration from Monday’s AQI of 101, which was in the same category, as per the Central Pollution Control Board’s (CPCB) daily bulletin.

The level of ultrafine particulate matter having a diameter of 2.5 microns or less (PM 2.5) — the city’s primary pollutant — was recorded at 132.1 micrograms per cubic metre (µg/m3) on Tuesday, as per the data by CPCB’s air quality monitor at Vikas Sadan in Sector 11. The concentration of PM2.5 pollutants on the previous day stood at 235.45ug/m3.

According to the early air quality warning system for the National Capital Region (NCR), the air quality is likely to remain in the “moderate” category on Wednesday and Thursday. The air quality is likely to start deteriorating marginally from Friday but will remain largely in the poor category.