New Delhi: A ‘yellow’ alert has been issued for Delhi, as dense fog is likely to affect visibility in the national capital on Saturday morning, the India Meteorological Department (IMD) said.
The weather office said a cold wave is expected to affect isolated places in the city between January 3 and January 6.
On Friday, Delhi’s 24-hour average Air Quality Index (AQI) stood at 236, compared to 380 recorded the previous day, indicating a significant improvement in air quality.
The maximum temperature in the national capital on Friday settled at 17.4 degrees Celsius, 1.9 degrees below normal, while the minimum temperature was registered at 9.1 degrees Celsius, 2.2 notches above the seasonal average, the IMD said.
Station-wise data showed that Lodhi Road recorded a maximum temperature of 17.4 degrees Celsius, followed by 17.2 degrees Celsius in Ayanagar, 14 degrees Celsius in Ridge and 16.4 degrees Celsius in Palam.
The minimum temperature stood at 9 degrees Celsius at Palam and Lodhi Road, followed by 8.7 degrees Celsius at the Ridge and 8.1 degrees Celsius at Ayanagar. On Saturday, the minimum temperature is expected to be around 7 degrees Celsius and the maximum about 18 degrees Celsius, with dense fog likely in the morning, according to the IMD. It has also predicted a cold wave in isolated pockets of Delhi and Haryana between January 3 and January 6. A cold wave is declared when the minimum temperature drops by 4.5 degrees Celsius to 6.5 degrees Celsius below
the average temperature.
Safdarjung logged the lowest visibility of 800 metres between 1.30 am and 2 am on Friday, which later improved to 1,200 metres by 2.30 am.
Data from the Central Pollution Control Board’s (CPCB) SAMEER app showed that 15 monitoring stations were in the ‘moderate’ category, 20 in ‘poor’ and one in ‘very poor’, with NSIT Dwarka recording the worst AQI of 367 in the evening. In the morning, air quality in the national capital remained in the ‘very poor’ category, with an AQI reading of 302.
Delhi recorded its lowest ever average concentrations of Particulate Matter (PM10 and PM2.5) in the year 2025 in the last seven years, barring the Covid-affected year 2020, the CAQM said on Friday.