City records second-coldest Dec since 1901

New Delhi: As cold wave intensifies, the national Capital has recorded the second-coldest December since 1901, officials said on Tuesday. Delhi's mean maximum temperature (MMT) for December stood at 18.76 degrees Celsius, the second-lowest after 17.3 degrees Celsius recorded in December 1997.

This comes a day after dense fog enveloped Delhi, delaying hundreds of flights and leading to several diversions and cancellations. India Meteorological Department has said that the cold wave will subside till January 4 as the temperatures are expected to rise in the coming days.

With this, December has recorded 18 consecutive "cold days" or an 18-day "cold spell", the maximum after 17 cold days in December 1997. After 1992, Delhi has had cold spells only in four years - 1997, 1998, 2003 and 2014.

The prolonged cold wave and absence of adequate sunshine due to a very dense fog caused the mercury to plummet drastically, making Monday the coldest day (with a maximum of 9.4 degrees Celsius) since 1901.

A severe cold wave in the national capital has also prompted a "red" warning from the weather office after the temperature on Saturday morning was recorded at 2.8 degrees Celsius at the Lodhi Road observatory.

Meanwhile, the pollution level of the national capital remained in the "severe" category with air quality index crossing 430 mark on Tuesday, prompting System of Air Quality and Weather Forecasting And Research to advise people to avoid outdoor activities.

SAFAR model suggested that under the influence of approaching western disturbance surface winds are likely to pick and improved ventilation is likely to affect AQI positively. "AQI is forecasted to improve to the middle-end of the very poor category by the new year day (January 1, 2020)," reported SAFAR.

Further significant improvement in AQI towards the lower-end of "very poor" to "poor" category is expected by January 2. As per SAFAR-model, Wednesday's top three air pollution hot spots of Delhi are likely to be Badarpur, AIIMS/Adarshnagar, and Rohini.

Meanwhile, under the influence of approaching western disturbance, isolated rainfall is likely over Delhi by the weekend and significant improvements in AQI is expecting, reported SAFAR.