NEW DELHI: The gardens in the national capital on Saturday were abuzz with city residents basking in the bright sunshine. After a long time, city sky was not shrouded in clouds and the chill in the winds significantly decipated during the day.
Besides the sunny day, Delhi and the national capital region received some respite from the dense fog and cold on Saturday. However, dense fog continued to proliferate in the states surrounding the capital in North India. Visuals that emerged on on social media showed visibility reduced significantly.
Although the India Meteorological Department (IMD) had forecasted a partly cloudy sky and moderate fog in the morning of Saturday, with the minimum temperature to hover around 5 degrees Celsius, the day’s maximum temperature touched 22 degrees Celsius.
The IMD has predicted that the national capital may witness a minimum of 6 degrees Celsius on the morning of Sunday, while on Monday, it may go upto 8 degrees Celsius
Meanwhile, the city’s air quality plunged sharply into the ‘red zone’ again on Saturday with with the Air Quality Index (AQI) in Anand Vihar area recorded at 450 as per the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) at 7am.
On Friday, the 24-hour air quality was marked in the ‘severe’ category, with mean AQI at 409 at 4pm, according to the CPCB national bulletin.
On Friday, the national capital was engulfed by dense fog in the morning, recording a minimum temperature of 4.7 degrees Celsius, four degrees below normal. It was 4.8 degrees Celsius a day earlier.
This was Delhi’s lowest minimum on Republic Day in the last three years and the second lowest in the last decade, behind 2021, when it was 2.1 degrees Celsius, data revealed.
On Friday, fog delayed around 25 flights at the city’s Indira Gandhi International (IGI) airport and at least 34 trains were delayed by over an hour.