New Delhi: Delhi witnessed a sharp drop in temperatures on Saturday following a spell of rain a day earlier, while air quality showed marginal improvement, according to official data.
The India Meteorological Department said the minimum temperature at Safdarjung, the city’s base station, settled at 7.6 degrees Celsius, just 0.1 degree above the seasonal average. This marked a significant fall from Friday’s minimum of 13.7 degrees Celsius, which had been the highest recorded in the last four years for this time of the season.
Other parts of the city also experienced colder conditions. Palam and Lodhi Road recorded minimum temperatures of 6.8 degrees Celsius each, while The Ridge reported 6.6 degrees Celsius. Ayanagar was the coldest, with the mercury dipping to 6 degrees Celsius.
Air quality improved slightly on Saturday morning, with the average Air Quality Index recorded at 256, placing it in the ‘poor’ category, compared to 293 a day earlier, as per data from the Central Pollution Control Board’s Sameer app.
Of the monitoring stations across the city, air quality remained ‘poor’ at 29 locations, while four stations reported ‘very poor’ air quality. Data from three stations was unavailable at the time of reporting. Dwarka recorded the lowest AQI at 113.
The CPCB categorises AQI levels between 0 and 50 as ‘good’, 51 to 100 as ‘satisfactory’, 101 to 200 as ‘moderate’, 201 to 300 as ‘poor’, 301 to 400 as ‘very poor’, and 401 to 500 as ‘severe’.
The Air Quality Early Warning System has forecast that Delhi’s air quality is likely to remain in the ‘poor’ category over the next two days. The outlook for the following six days suggests conditions may fluctuate between ‘poor’ and ‘very poor’.
The IMD has predicted that maximum and minimum temperatures are likely to range between 17 and 19 degrees Celsius and 6 to 8 degrees Celsius, respectively. While minimum temperatures are expected to remain near normal, maximum temperatures may stay 1.3 to 3.3 degrees Celsius below average.
The weather department has also forecast a generally cloudy sky with shallow to moderate fog during morning hours, along with strong surface winds blowing at speeds of 10 to 20 kilometres per hour.
