The chill deepened in the capital on another sunless day, with the maximum temperature at Safdarjung dipping 4 degrees from the previous day to settle at 13.4 degrees Celsius, making Tuesday the third ‘cold day’ of the month so far, reports Kushagra Dixit.
Significantly, extreme daytime chill was seen uniformly across Delhi and its neighboring cities, with ‘severe cold day’ to ‘cold day’ conditions recorded at all 10 functional city stations and those at Gurgaon, Ghaziabad and Noida. The met office has issued a yellow alert for cold day conditions in parts of Delhi with moderate to shallow fog on Wednesday morning.
‘Cold day’ is a term for very chilly day conditions, when the maximum temperature stays at least 4.5 notches below normal (6.5 degrees for severe cold day), provided the minimum temperature is under 10 degrees C.
The maximum at Safdarjung on Tuesday was the second-lowest day temperature recorded at the city’s base station in two years after it logged 12.5 degrees C last week. The prolonged cold spell has hit the capital hard as maximum temperatures have remained below normal for 12 consecutive days.
On Tuesday, the minimum temperature, however, saw a slight rise. It was recorded at 7.7 degrees C on Tuesday against 5.3 degree C a day earlier.
At Lodhi Road, the maximum temperature was recorded at 13.2 degree Celsius, eight notches below normal, making it a severe cold day condition in the area.
According to the weather department, there are chances of a slight rise in day temperatures on Wednesday, with the possibility of strong winds dissolving the uplifted fog layer, which has hovered over the region, making days gloomy and chilly. There was a likelihood chance of rain on Tuesday but it didn’t materialize.
The chances of rain were very less in Delhi. Cold day conditions occurred because of an uplifted fog layer and cold northwest winds. On Wednesday, the city may see shallow fog in the morning while the uplifted fog layer will likely dissipate due to strong winds, and daytime temperature may rise, said Kuldeep Srivastava, scientist, IMD.
The maximum and minimum temperature on Wednesday may hover around 16 and 8 degree Celsius, respectively, with ‘cold day’ conditions in some places.
The air quality remained within the ‘very poor’ category. The air quality index (AQI), on a scale of 0 to 500, was 343 against 345 a day earlier.
According to the air quality early warning system, the air quality is likely to improve to poor.
The air quality is likely to improve but remain in the poor category on Wednesday and Thursday, said the IITM’s air quality early warning system.
