At 5° C, Delhi records lowest minimum temp of season
FREEZING Dense fog was seen early morning as 19 trains were cancelled though flights were unaffected. Minimum temp of 6 degrees Celsius is expected today
NEWDELHI: Thursday was the coldest day of the season till date in terms of the minimum temperature that touched 5 degrees Celsius. The city witnessed heavy fog in the early hours and the air quality remained ‘very poor’.
The maximumtemperature on Thursday was 20.3 degrees Celsius, a notch above normal, while the minimum was two points below normal.
“This was the coldest day yet this season in terms of minimum temperature after January 1, when the minimum had touched 5.7 degrees Celsius,” a MET official said.
“From midnight to 10.30am, there was heavy fog and visibility was between 100-200m in all three runways. This fog was significantly more than past two days but less than December 31 and January 1,” RK Jenamani, director incharge of the IGI airport meteorological unit, said.
A Delhi International Airport Limited official said there was no impact on flight operations due to weather on Thursday.
“Flight take-offs and landings were regular. Three flights were diverted due to other reasons and not the weather,” he said.
According to a railway official, 92 trains were reported running late while 19 were cancelled and 44 trains were rescheduled because of the dense fog.
“In the morning hours, around 8am, it became 200m and later in the day it improved to 1,500m. This was because of good wind speed,” Kuldeep Srivastava, a senior MET scientist, said.
According to the MET forecast, the maximum and minimum temperatures would be around 20 and 6 degrees Celsius respectively on Friday.
“Dense fog is expected in the morning with visibility to be 50m in early morning,” said Srivastava.
POLLUTION
The average Air Quality Index (AQI) of Delhi reached 362 on Thursday, which is a dip from Wednesday’s 398, both at ‘very poor level. The AQI is calculated on a scale of 0-500. An AQI between 0-50 is considered good, 51-100 satisfactory, 101-200 moderate, 201-300 poor, 301-400 very poor and 401-500 severe.
According to the Central Pollution Control Board’s real-time monitoring, at 6pm on Thursday, the PM2.5 and PM10 were 233.7 microgram per cubic metre (ug/ m3) and 406.2 ug/m3 respectively.