Delhi wakes up to a cold morning, air quality slips to ‘very poor’

Delhi reeled under intense cold conditions on Wednesday, with the city recording a minimum temperature of 3.8 degrees Celsius.

Safdarjung, the city's primary observatory, recorded a minimum temperature of 3.8 degrees Celsius, 3.6 notches below normal, the India Meteorological Department (IMD) said.

Palam recorded a minimum temperature of 4.4 degrees Celsius, 2.9 notches below normal, and Lodhi Road recorded a minimum temperature of 3.6 degrees Celsius, 2.4 notches below normal. The Ridge recorded a low of 4.6 degrees Celsius, 3.5 notches below normal, and Ayanagar recorded a low of 4 degrees Celsius, 3.1 notches below normal.

According to the IMD, cold wave conditions are declared when minimum temperatures fall 4.5 to 6.4 degrees below normal. The maximum temperature for the day is expected to settle around 20 degrees Celsius.

Delhi's air quality deteriorated to the 'very poor' category with the Air Quality Index (AQI) settling at 354, according to Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) data.

The CPCB's SAMEER app showed that 33 monitoring stations recorded air quality in the 'very poor' category, four in 'severe' and two in 'poor'. Jahangirpuri recorded the worst air quality with an AQI of 420, falling in the 'severe' category.

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