Days set to get colder after light rain

Light rain brought down the day temperature in the national capital region, including Gautam Budh Nagar, on Wednesday as a cloudy sky pushed up minimum temperature

Light rain brought down the day temperature in the national capital region, including Gautam Budh Nagar, on Wednesday as a cloudy sky pushed up minimum temperature marginally and pollution. The air quality index (AQI) of Noida slipped back to ‘very poor’ category, according to the Central Pollution Control Board’s bulletin.

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According to the India Meteorological Department (IMD), the mercury is set to drop over next three days as the wind direction has changed to north-westerly. Weather analysts, however, said the mercury will not fall as low as it did in December creating coldwave conditions.

While drizzling was expected to stop on Wednesday itself, more rainfall is expected around January 13 because of the presence of a Western Disturbance.

Wednesday’s maximum temperatures recorded at 14.5° Celsius, five notches below the season’s average, against 19° Celsius a day earlier. The minimum temperature was recorded at 12.5° Celsius, five notches above the season’s average against 11.6° Celsius a day earlier.

“The mercury will fall as the icy north-westerly winds will approach the region. However, it is unlikely that the ‘cold day’ condition would return. The temperature will further start increasing from January 13 as another Western Disturbance would approach the region around January 12,” head of IMD’s regional weather forecasting centre Kuldeep Srivastava said.

According to the IMD, the minimum and maximum temperatures on Thursday are expected to hover around 9° Celsius and 16° Celsius, respectively. By Saturday, the temperatures will drop to 7° Celsius and 16° Celsius, respectively, Met officials said.

AIR QUALITY

Meanwhile, the air quality of Noida and Greater Noida deteriorated to ‘very poor’. On Tuesday, air quality had improved to ‘poor’ for the first time in the year. According to the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB), the air quality index (AQI) on Wednesday, on a scale of 0 to 500, for Noida was 313 or against 274 or ‘poor’ a day earlier. The AQI of Greater Noida was 316 against 272 a day earlier.

The AQI of Ghaziabad, however, improved to 262 against 297 a day earlier, both ‘poor’.

According to the System of Air Quality and Weather Forecasting and Research (Safar), the air quality is likely to improve on Thursday, but will again deteriorate by Friday.

“The AQI is forecast to be ‘moderate’ to ‘poor’ for tomorrow (Thursday), but the increase in moisture may lead to foggy conditions. On the January 10, the SAFAR model suggests marginal deterioration of air quality in the ‘poor’ category,” said a SAFAR forecast.