New Delhi,
At 8.3 degrees Celsius, Delhi on Friday recorded the coldest night yet this winter season, ANI news agency reported citing the India Meteorological Department (IMD).
“Last night was the coldest in Delhi with the temperature plummeting to 8.3 degrees Celsius. It was the coldest night of this season till now,” an IMD official was quoted as saying by the agency.
The maximum temperature on Friday, however, rose to 23.7 degrees Celsius earlier in the day, but it dipped below 10 degrees during the night.
With temperatures dipping to 8.3 degrees, the mercury level on Friday was just slightly lower than the night before on Thursday, when the national capital recorded 8.4 degrees Celsius, marking back-to-back cold nights and plummeting temperatures in an entirely chilly week.
The situation due to the weather is especially compounded in the national capital by the air pollution crisis. On Saturday morning, the air quality index (AQI) in Delhi slipped to 301 in the ‘very poor’ category, according to the System of Air Quality and Weather Forecasting And Research (SAFAR)
The PM 10 was recorded at 217 in the ‘moderate’ category and PM 2.5 was recorded at 121 in the ‘very poor’ category at 9:17am, marking the third consecutive day in the national capital when the air quality has remained in the ‘poor’ category.
Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal in October unveiled his 10-point master plan to combat severe air pollution in the winter months, which included announcing alternatives to stubble burning, measures to control road dust and vehicular emissions, and urging governments of neighbouring national capital region (NCR) states to adopt similar steps.
The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) government led by Kejriwal has also formed a 16-member team to evaluate the performance of the Connaught Place smog tower and marked air pollution hot spots through the Green Delhi app
