Delhi continued to experience cold and foggy weather on Friday as the minimum temperature held beneath five degree Celsius for the fifth straight day, according to the India Meteorological Department (IMD).
The Safdarjung Observatory, which provides representative data for the National Capital, noted a minimum temperature of 4.6 degree Celsius. This is three degrees below the normal minimum temperature for the National Capital.
Kuldeep Srivastava, Head of IMD's regional forecasting centre, said that "moderate" fog had reduced visibility to 201 metres in Safdarjung, while "shallow" fog was noticed in Palam area of Delhi.
As per the IMD metrics, "very dense" fog is when the visibility is between 0 and 50 meters, "dense fog" is when visibility is between 51 and 200 meters, "moderate" fog is when visibility is between 201 and 500 meters and "shallow" fog is when visibility is between 501 to 1 km.
IMD has also predicted cold wave conditions in parts of Delhi on Saturday.
After Delhi recorded three "severe" air days on the trot, the air quality in Delhi improved slightly to the "very poor" category on Friday morning.
The city's average air quality index (AQI) was 391. The 24-hour average AQI was 423 on Thursday. It was 433 on Wednesday and 418 on Tuesday.
An AQI between zero and 50 is considered "good", 51 and 100 "satisfactory", 101 and 200 "moderate", 201 and 300 "poor", 301 and 400 "very poor", and 401 and 500 "severe".
A marginal improvement is predicted by Sunday as wind speed picks up under the influence of the western disturbance, Srivastava said.(With PTI inputs)