A cold wave gripped the northern plains as northwesterly winds dipped the mercury by 1-2°C in most places in Delhi on Monday with Safdarjung, the city’s representational weather station, recording a minimum temperature of 1.4°C, the lowest minimum this season. The station recorded the lowest temperature since January 1, 2021 (1.1°C) a day after the mercury there dipped to 4.7°C on Sunday.
Night temperatures have dipped sharply, but a relatively warm day was expected at 18°C. Delhi recorded a maximum temperature of 17.8°C on Sunday and 18.4°C on Saturday.
Northwesterly winds kept the air quality in the poor category on Monday morning. The air quality improved from the very poor category on Sunday.
The India Meteorological Department (IMD) said the cold wave will persist till Wednesday as Delhi’s minimum temperatures were likely to hover around the 2°C mark at Safdarjung.
IMD scientist RK Jenamani said because of clear skies and no fog, the city is getting excellent day sunshine, and as such the days are currently not as cold. “Only at nighttime and early morning, we are seeing a coldwave.”
The IMD declares a cold wave in the region when the minimum temperature is 4.5°C or more below the normal, or when it drops to 4°C. Safdarjung (1.4°C), Lodhi road (1.6°C), Ridge (2°C) and Ayanagar (2.8°C) met the criteria on Monday.
The Safdarjung station earlier recorded five consecutive cold wave days between January 5 till January 9, making it the longest such spell for January since five such days were recorded in the same month in 2013. The mercury dipped to as low as 1.9°C during this spell on January 8.
The lowest minimum temperature was 1.5°C at the Ridge station on January 7. This too was eclipsed on Monday morning.
Delhi recorded an Air Quality Index (AQI) of 241 (poor) at 9am on Monday, compared to 213 on Sunday and 353 (very poor) on Saturday.
The improvement in the air quality prompted the Commission for Air Quality Management (CAQM) in NCR and Adjoining Areas to revoke measures under Stage III or the severe category of the Graded Response Action Plan (Grap) on Sunday. Private construction activities, brick kilns, hot mix plants not operating on clean fuels, stone crushers, mining, and its associated activities can now resume.
Delhi’s AQI was likely to worsen to very poor by Tuesday. An AQI between 0-50 is considered good, 51 and 100 satisfactory, 101 and 200 moderate, 201 and 300 poor, 301 and 400 very poor, and over 400 severe.
