Bone chilling cold in Delhi, maximum temperature settled four notches below normal

It was a bone-chilling cold in the national capital on Wednesday with the maximum temperature settling at 15.7 degrees Celsius, four notches below the normal, the weather department said.

Safdarjung, Delhi's main weather station, recorded a visibility of 200 meters at 8:30 am, while the minimum temperature was recorded at 7.3 degrees Celsius, below the normal for the season's average.

"In Delhi, the temperature is set to hold steady over the next two days, while in some areas it may drop to around 6 or 7.5 degrees Celsius," said Kuldeep Srivastava, scientist and head, Regional Weather Forecasting Centre.

Srivastava said the first ten days of January are considered the coldest, but it's relatively warmer this year compared to the previous year.

"The minimum temperature has not yet dropped to 2 or 3 degrees, unlike in previous years when it occurred for one or two days," an official of the India Meteorological Department (IMD) told PTI.

According to the Indian Railways, 26 Delhi-bound trains were delayed by one to six hours due to fog.

The humidity levels oscillated between 75 per cent and 100 per cent on Wednesday.

The IMD has forecast moderate fog for Thursday with the maximum and minimum temperatures likely to settle around 17 and 7 degrees Celsius respectively.

The 24-hour average Air Quality Index (AQI) recorded at 4 pm was 341, which stands in the "very poor" category.

An AQI between zero and 50 is considered "good", 51 and 100 "satisfactory", 101 and 200 "moderate", 201 and 300 "poor", 301 and 400 "very poor", and 401 and 500 "severe".

December 2023 was the national capital's warmest month in six years, with the city not recording a single 'cold wave day' during the month, the IMD said.