Delhi feels the chill at 3.6 degrees Celsius, coldest night of season

The minimum temperature in the national capital dropped to 3.6 degrees Celsius, the lowest this winter on Wednesday, the Met office said. "The minimum temperature was recorded at 3.6 degree Celsius, four notches below the season's average. It is the lowest temperature recorded so far this year," it said. Delhi has been reeling under a cold wave for the past a few days. The fall in temperature is because of cold wave conditions prevailing over northwest India. “The heavy snowfall — early for this time of the year — in Jammu and Kashmir, parts of Himachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand, has triggered cold winds that are reaching Delhi. The predicted cold wave conditions are mainly because the sky is clear and in the absence of any cloud layer, the cold winds rapidly cool the earth.

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The weatherman has predicted clear skies throughout the day on Wednesday and the maximum temperature is expected to hover around 20 degrees Celsius.

On December 23, the minimum temperature was recorded at 3.7 degrees Celsius. It is expected to dip to 3.0 degrees Celsius after December 28.

“Humidity level recorded at 8.30 am was 97 per cent.  On Tuesday, the minimum temperature had settled at 5.0 degrees Celsius,” according to the Met department.

Delhi is also witnessing bad air quality and on Wednesday the major pollutants PM 2.5 were recorded at 338 and PM 10 at 258 (very poor category) in the RK Puram area. In the Anand Vihar area, the Air Quality Index (AQI) PM 2.5 was at 311 and PM 10 at 195. At the Major Dhyan Chand National Stadium area, PM 2.5 was at 232 and PM 10 at 189. AQI at Punjabi Bagh Delhi was recorded poor, PM 2.5 was at 354 while the PM 10 was at 258. 

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Delhi is reeling under the menace of air pollution for the past couple of years. The region faced a major air quality crisis last year when severe pollution level forced the shutdown of schools and colleges. In 2016, the government tried to explore the possibility of cloud seeding for artificial rain but the plan never worked out.