New Delhi: The residents of the national capital region have been witnessing a strike of cold wave over the last two days and on Monday it witnessed a massive dip in mercury and is expected to plummet further by Thursday-Friday, the India Meteorological Department (IMD) said. Today, Delhi recorded a minimum temperature of 8.4 degrees Celsius, down from 11.4 on Sunday and 14.4 on Saturday. “The temperature has dropped by six notches as compared to Saturday,” said Kuldeep Srivastava, head of the IMD’s regional forecasting centre.
“The temperature will dip further on December 17-18. There will be shallow fog and sky will be clear during the day. No rainfall is expected in the coming days,” the senior IMD official added.
Meanwhile, the IMD has also predicted a fall in temperature by three-five degree Celsius over most parts of northwest India during the next four days. There will be, however, no significant change in minimum temperatures over most parts of central and east India during the next two-three days and then fall by two-four degrees Celsius thereafter.
The IMD said, “Dense fog very likely in isolated pockets over Uttarakhand, Punjab, Haryana, Chandigarh, northwest Rajasthan, northwest Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Sub Himalayan West Bengal, Sikkim, Assam, Meghalaya, and Tripura on December 14.”
During the next 24 hours, “cold day to severe cold day conditions” are very likely at a few places over Punjab, and “cold day conditions” are very likely at isolated places over Haryana, Chandigarh, and northwest Rajasthan.
The IMD also forecasted that under the influence of strengthening of the easterly wave, “scattered to fairly widespread rain/thundershowers” very likely over Tamil Nadu, Puducherry, Karaikal, Kerala, and Mahe.
Additionally, the weather forecasting agency further predicted that the Lakshadweep area from Dec 16- Dec 18 will receive isolated heavy falls and very likely isolated heavy falls over Tamil Nadu, Puducherry, and Karaikal during the same.
Delhi air quality remains in ‘moderate’ category
Delhi’s air quality was recorded in the “moderate” category on Monday due to favourable wind speed. The city’s air quality index (AQI) was 165 at noon. On Sunday, the average 24-hour AQI in the national Capital stood at 305 in the “very poor” category.
Union Ministry of Earth Science’s air quality monitoring centre, System of Air Quality and Weather Forecasting and Research (SAFAR), said that the air quality is better as high winds helped to clean accumulated pollutants.
The AQI is likely to marginally deteriorate from the moderate to the poor category in the next two days.
(With Agency Inputs)