NEW DELHI: Cold wave gripped Delhi on Wednesday as minimum temperature dropped to 3.2 degrees Celsius, four notches below normal, at Safdarjung, the city’s base station.
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Met officials said the minimum temperature was dipping mainly due to cold winds blowing from hilly areas and absence of cloud cover. Very dense fog was recorded at Palam during morning hours, with visibility dropping to zero. Moderate fog was recorded at Safdarjung and the visibility was 200m during morning. India Meteorological Department (IMD) has issued an “orange” alert for Thursday and Friday as there are chances of dense to very dense fog.
The minimum temperature was the lowest at Lodhi Road at 3 degrees Celsius. The maximum temperature was 18.5 degrees Celsius, one degree above normal.
In this month, two cold wave days have been reported. A cold wave day is declared when the minimum temperature is 4 or more notches below normal or when the minimum temperature is less than 4 degrees Celsius.
Kuldeep Srivastava, scientist at IMD and head of Regional Weather Forecasting Centre, said that besides the cold northwesterly winds from snow-capped mountains in the western Himalayan region, “lack of cloud cover makes the day warm while the heat quickly dissipates at night”.
According to IMD, the minimum and maximum temperatures will be around 3 and 18 degrees Celsius on Thursday. Cold wave conditions are predicted on Thursday too. “The minimum temperature may rise slightly from January 15 to 19,” said the Met official.
Meanwhile, Delhi’s air quality deteriorated on Thursday as it entered “very poor” category. The overall air quality index (AQI) was 354 as against 293 on Wednesday. System of Air Quality and Weather Forecasting and Research, a central forecasting body, predicted no quick relief in the next few days.