NEW DELHI: As a cold wave gripped Delhi on Monday, the city recorded its lowest minimum November temperature since 2003 at 6.3 degrees Celsius, five notches below normal. On Sunday, it was 6.9° Celsius.
According to the forecast of India Meteorological Department, the minimum and maximum temperatures are likely to rise marginally in the next seven days. The minimum temperature will hover around 7-8 degrees Celsius while the maximum will be around 25-26 degrees. However, Delhi-NCR may receive light rain on Thursday. The maximum temperature on Monday was 26.2 degrees Celsius as against 24.2 on Sunday.
Kuldeep Srivastava, scientist at IMD and head of Regional Weather Forecasting Centre, said, “Delhi recorded its coldest night in November in 17 years”. On November 29, 2003, the minimum temperature was 6.1 degrees Celsius.
Explaining the reasons behind the dip in the mercury, Srivastava said, “As the wind direction continues to remain northwesterly, the cold wind from snow-clad western Himalayan region, including Jammu and Kashmir, Himanchal Pradesh and Uttarakhand, is coming to Delhi. In the absence of cloud cover, the night temperature remains colder than normal.”
Met officials said light rain might occur in Delhi-NCR in the morning of November 26 while mist/ shallow fog had been predicted for other days in this month. The capital is likely to have a colder November this year than in the past few years as the minimum temperature has remained lower than normal except one day this month, an official said. Delhi has already recorded the coldest October in 26 years this year.
Meanwhile, Delhi’s air quality index was “poor” at 295 on Monday and is likely to deteriorate to “very poor” on Tuesday.
System of Air Quality and Weather Forecasting and Research, a central forecasting body, said 149 fires counts were observed in neighbouring states on Sunday and the share of stubble burning to Delhi’s air was 6%.
“Winds are forecast to slow down along with low ventilation. AQI is likely to deteriorate towards the high end of ‘very poor’ by Tuesday and likely to stay at the high end of ‘very poor’ on Wednesday. It may reach ‘severe’ in a few locations for a short period,” SAFAR stated.
If farm fire counts increase, the capital’s air quality may further deteriorate, it predicted. “Marginal improvement is expected by Thursday.”