IMD forecasts cold wave till January 6
Delhi residents woke up to gloomy skies on Sunday as clouds hung over the capital, obscuring the sun and bringing down the day temperatures.
A cold wave is expected to affect isolated places in the city till January 6, the IMD forecast. A cold wave is declared when the minimum temperature drops by 4.5 - 6.5 degrees Celsius below the normal.
According to the India Meteorological Department (IMD), the maximum temperatures remained appreciably below normal (3.1 to 5.0 degrees Celsius) at isolated places and below normal (1.6 to 3.0 degrees Celsius) in most parts of Delhi.
The national Capital on Sunday logged a maximum temperature of 17.3 degrees Celsius, two degrees below the seasonal average, the IMD said. The minimum temperature settled at 7.4 degrees Celsius, 0.5 notches above the season’s average, it added. The weather office has predicted maximum and minimum temperatures to settle at 18 degrees Celsius and 8 degrees Celsius on Monday.
Station-wise data on maximum temperatures showed that Palam recorded 16.3 degrees Celsius, Lodhi Road 17 degrees Celsius, the Ridge 17.8 degrees Celsius, and Ayanagar 16.7 degrees Celsius. Safdarjung recorded a minimum temperature of 7.4 degrees Celsius; Palam 6.8 degrees Celsius, 0.2 notches below the seasonal average; Lodhi Road 7.6 degrees Celsius, 1.6 notches above normal; the Ridge 8.9 degrees Celsius, 1.2 notches above normal; and Ayanagar 6.6 degrees Celsius, 0.4 notches below normal, the IMD data showed. Safdarjung and Palam reported the lowest visibility of 1,300 m at 8 am. Relative humidity was recorded at 73 per cent at 5.30 pm.
The sky is likely to be partly cloudy during the next 24 hours and mainly clear for the subsequent four days and partly cloudy thereafter, the weather officer said, predicting shallow fog during the night on January 4. Shallow to moderate fog would prevail over most parts of the city during morning hours, thereafter, it added.
Many parts of Delhi continued to breathe very poor air quality on Sunday morning, even as the weather remained windy.
Delhi’s Air Quality Index (AQI) stood at 307, in the ‘very poor’ category, at 4 pm, Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) data showed. According to official data visible at CBCB recorded at 9 am, several monitoring stations reported very poor Air Quality Index (AQI) levels. Rohini recorded an AQI of 361, Anand Vihar 351, Chandni Chowk 357, Wazirpur 343, Punjabi Bagh 327, R K Puram 320 and ITO 309.
An AQI between 301 and 400 falls under the very poor category and can cause respiratory discomfort. Despite the windy conditions, air quality remained poor across many areas of the national Capital. Morning winds helped reduce pollution slightly, but not enough to bring AQI levels into the moderate range. With 13.628, the transport sector was the main contributor to Delhi pollution, followed by Delhi and pheripheral industries.
According to the Air Quality Early Warning System for Delhi, the ventilation index lower than 6000 m2/s with an average wind speed less than 10 kmph is unfavourable for the dispersion of pollutants.
“A partly cloudy sky, with a predominant surface wind from the southwest direction, and a wind speed of up to 11 kmph, prevailed during the past 24 hours. The predominant surface wind is likely to be from the west direction with wind speed less than 10 kmph during the morning hours,” it said.
