With the entire northern region of the country reeling under cold wave conditions, there is no respite for the national capital from the biting cold or air pollution.
Hence, as usual Delhiites woke up to a foggy morning on Monday with the minimum temperature settled at 7.8 degrees Celsius, the Indian Meteorological Department said.
Making things worse for the city’s residents was the toxic air quality and the dense fog at some locations where the visibility dropped to as low as 125 meters. The city was enveloped by a thick layer of smog varying from dense to moderate at different locations, especially impacting the places in outer Delhi, where the visibility was much affected.
The city’s air quality witnessed an improvement of 28 points compared to what it was on Sunday. However, with the air remaining in the ‘very poor’ zone there is not much respite from the pollution, according to the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB).
The average Air Quality Index (AQI) on Monday was recorded at 383 in Delhi based on observations from the 34 air monitoring stations across the city.
As per the pollution control agency, there are a total of 40 air monitoring stations across Delhi.
There is no sign as of now of any respite from the bad air situation, as the Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorology (IITM) has forecast further depletion of the AQI levels in the city. “The air quality is likely to deteriorate and reach a severe category on 27.12.2023. The air quality is likely to remain in the upper end of the Very Poor category on 28.12.2023. The outlook for subsequent 6 Days: The air quality is likely to remain in the very poor to severe category,” the air monitoring agency said in its bulletin on Monday.
Meanwhile, the IMD has forecast dense fog in the national capital for Tuesday with minimum and maximum temperatures to hover at 7 and 25 degrees Celsius respectively.
In the northern states Punjab, Haryana and East Uttar Pradesh for the coming two days the weatherman has forecast dense to very dense fog during the early morning hours while the cold will continue to tighten its grip around the entire northern region.