Bitter chill back on Sunday, air quality to stay poor: IMD

NEW DELHI: After experiencing warm but windy days, Delhi’s temperature is expected to plummet again from January 24, a day after a fresh western disturbance passes over the western Himalayas, India Meteorological Department said.

On Thursday, the minimum temperature recorded at the Safdarjung weather station, which is considered the official marker for the city, was 7.4 degrees Celsius. The maximum temperature was 22.8°C, a notch above the season’s normal.

At the Palam weather station, the minimum temperature was 7.2°C, while the maximum temperature was 20.2°C.

Kuldeep Srivastava, head of IMD’S regional weather forecasting centre, said that till Saturday, the minimum temperature is likely to hover around 6-7 degrees Celsius, while the maximum temperatures will be around 20 degrees Celsius.

“From January 24 (Sunday), the minimum temperature will start falling and from January 25, the maximum temperature will also see a fall. This will primarily be because of the cold winds blowing from Jammu Kashmir and Himachal Pradesh after spells of rain and snow on January 23,” said Srivastava.

Meanwhile, the air quality in Delhi is likely to deteriorate briefly on January 23, but winds are expected to pick up again and improve the air from January 24.

On Thursday, the overall air quality index (AQI) of Delhi was 296, in the ‘poor’ zone. On Wednesday, the average AQI was 283, also in the ‘poor’ category. According to IMD scientists, this improvement has been because of strong winds blowing over the national capital. The wind speeds have been high on Wednesday and Thursday primarily because of a difference in the maximum and minimum temperatures, scientists explained.

Union ministry of earth science’s air quality monitoring centre System of Air Quality and Weather Forecasting and Research (Safar) said the surface winds on Thursday were south-westerly and moderate, but will slow down on Friday leading to deterioration in pollution levels.

“The AQI is forecasted to be in the ‘poor’ category on January 22. Under the influence of a fresh western disturbance, winds are forecasted to increase on January 23 and marginal improvement in AQI is forecasted for January 23 and January 24,” the Safar forecast read.