Smog Blankets Delhi-NCR As Temperature Drops To 9.7°C, Air Quality Turns ‘Severe’

Delhi woke up to biting cold and choking smog as the city’s air quality slipped back into the ‘severe’ category while temperatures dipped to 9.7 degrees Celsius, marking one of the coldest mornings of the season.

This is the first time the minimum temperature in Delhi has gone below the 10 degrees Celsius mark during this year’s winter season.

On Saturday, the maximum temperature recorded in the capital was 26.6 degrees Celsius, which is also 1.9 degrees Celsius below normal for the season.

The India Meteorological Department has forecast a minimum temperature of 9–11 degrees Celsius and a maximum of 24–26 degrees Celsius in Delhi on Sunday. It added that the city is likely to witness “mainly clear skies with mist” and “shallow fog” during the morning hours.

The IMD has predicted Delhi’s minimum temperature to swing between 8-12 degrees Celsius and maximum temperature between 23-27 degrees Celsius, for the next five days as well.

Delhi Air Quality

As of 8 am, on Sunday, Delhi’s air remained ‘very poor’ with AQI of 385. However, in some areas such as Anand Vihar, Chandni Chowk, ITO, and Bawana, the air turned ‘severe’ as well with AQI of 412, 418, 417, and 436 respectively.

According to the Central Pollution Control Board data, Delhi’s air remained ‘very poor’ on Saturday as well with an AQI of 386. On Friday too, the air was in the ‘very poor’ category, which is a slight improvement from earlier days during the week when Delhi’s air turned ‘severe’.

Delhi’s air turned hazardous as the city logged AQI levels of 428, 418, and 404 on Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday, respectively.

According to CPCB, an AQI of 0-50 is considered ‘good’, 51-100 is considered ‘satisfactory’, 101-200 is considered ‘moderate’, 201-300 is considered ‘poor’, 301-400 is considered ‘very poor’, and 401-500 is considered ‘severe’.