Winds to push mercury down this week: IMD
NEW DELHI: The Capital is likely to get cooler over the rest of the week, said officials of the India Meteorological Department (IMD), after southeasterly winds previously kept Delhi’s minimum temperature from dipping. The Capital logged a minimum temperature of 15.4°C on Tuesday, dipping to 13.2°C on Wednesday, which is around normal for this time of the year.
However, with cooler northwesterly winds blowing towards the city, the weather office predicted that the minimum will drop to around 11°C by Thursday and hover around that mark till Saturday.
Delhi also recorded a maximum temperature of 27.5°C on Wednesday — a degree below normal. This too is forecast to dip to around 26°C by Friday.
“The impact of a western disturbance across northern India saw temperatures rising by two or three degrees at night between November 13 and 15. The south-easterly winds have transitioned to westerly and north-westerly now and will keep the mercury low,” said RK Jenamani, scientist at IMD.
Mahesh Palawat, vice-president of private weather forecaster Skymet, said that temperatures in north-west and central India are also expected to drop during this period.
“Single digit minimum cannot be ruled out for parts of Haryana and Rajasthan,” he said.
So far, the lowest temperature recorded this winter in Delhi was 12.6°C on both November 12 and 13. On November 14, warmer winds pushed the temperature to 14.1°C.
Meanwhile, Delhi’s air quality worsened on Wednesday, but stayed “poor” for a third straight day. The city recorded a 24-hour average Air Quality Index (AQI) of 264, according to the Central Pollution Control Board’s (CPCB) 4pm bulletin, worse than 227 on Tuesday. According to the Early Warning System (EWS) for Delhi, a forecasting system under the Union ministry of earth sciences, the AQI is likely to remain in the “poor” category on Thursday as well. However, on Friday, the air quality is set to deteriorate to the ‘very poor’ category and remain in that category on Saturday as well. “The outlook for subsequent six days shows the air quality is likely to remain largely between the ‘very poor’ to ‘poor’ category,” EWS said.