Delhi recorded the season’s coldest morning Thursday as the minimum temperature dipped to 4.5 degree Celsius at the Safdarjung station, which is representative of the city. The season’s first cold wave day was observed on Wednesday when the minimum temperature in Delhi dipped to 4.9 degree Celsius, making it the earliest cold wave day reported (with temperature below 5 degree Celsius) since 1996.
The minimum temperature at the Pusa and Ayanagar stations was reported to be 3.2 degree Celsius and 3.8 degree Celsius, respectively.
Delhi will continue to reel under cold wave conditions for the coming days, according to the India Meteorological Department (IMD) forecast. The Met Office has issued a yellow warning for Friday and Saturday, and forecast that cold wave conditions will persist in isolated places in Delhi. Cold, northwesterly winds up to 16 kmph are likely to blow during the next two days.
The minimum temperature will hover between 4 and 6 degree Celsius and the maximum between 23 and 24 degree Celsius. On Wednesday, the maximum temperature was 23 degree Celsius, around two notches below normal.
According to the IMD forecast, along with mainly clear skies for the next seven days, foggy conditions will prevail from December 15 to December 17.
IMD defines cold wave conditions to occur when actual temperatures dip below 4.1 degree Celsius or when departures are more than 4.4 degree Celsius in plains, provided the normal minimum is less than or equal to 10 degree Celsius.
According to IMD officials, the last time the minimum temperature dipped below 5 degree Celsius was on December 6, 1987, at 4.1 degree Celsius. On December 11, 1996, the minimum temperature was 2.3 degree Celsius.
Delhi AQI worsens to ‘poor’
A day after Delhi’s Air Quality Index (AQI) improved to the ‘moderate’ category at 199 as per the daily bulletin of the Central Pollution Control Board, it plummeted to 266 considered to be in the ‘poor’ category as of 10 am Thursday.
The air quality will remain ‘poor’ for the next six days, as per the forecast by the Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorology, Pune.
A dip in temperatures prevents the dispersal of pollutants, while an increase in wind speed is favourable. On Thursday morning, the wind speed was below 10 kmph from the southwest, as per the IMD.
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