NEW DELHI: The cold spell, which gave the national capital some of its coldest December days in recent memory, continues to be at bay at the turn of the year. The Met department on Friday said the minimum temperature in the city would remain in the tolerable range in the coming days.
The city recorded a maximum temperature of 23.5°C on Friday while the minimum settled at 7.6°C.
“While there will be moderate fog, there is a possibility of the city experiencing light rain on Sunday. The temperature would remain on the higher side for the next few days. Both the maximum and minimum temperatures would be in the normal range,” Kuldeep Srivastava, a senior scientist with the IMD, said.
The Met department has said that the maximum temperature would hover around the 22°C mark on Saturday, while the minimum would settle at 7°C.
While the cold wave seems to have abated, the city’s air quality has taken a turn for the worse. The overall air quality index (AQI) slipped to the ‘very poor’ range. It was recorded at 372, down from 400 on Wednesday, according to SAFAR, the Centre’s air quality monitoring station.
“The overall AQI was in the ‘very poor’ category on December 3 morning. Under the cold, stable nighttime, near-surface air is becoming stagnant without any mixing, leading to the accumulation of pollutants. The AQI is likely to stay between ‘very poor’ and the lower end of the ‘severe’ category in the next two days,” the SAFAR stated.
Mercury to remain tolerable
The Met department on Friday said the minimum temperature in the city would remain in the tolerable range in the coming days. December saw some of the city’s coldest days in recent times