Delhi logs coldest Feb day in 4 years

New Delhi: Delhi logged its coldest February day in four years on Monday, as dense fog engulfed parts of the capital during the early hours, further intensifying the chill and bringing down visibility.

The city’s base weather station at Safdarjung recorded a maximum temperature of 17.5 degrees Celsius, 4.8 notches below normal and the lowest for February since February 3, 2022, when the maximum had dipped to 14.4 degrees Celsius.

Partly cloudy conditions prevailed over the city throughout the day coupled with dense morning fog, reducing visibility to 100 metres at Safdarjung and Palam during the early hours.

Night temperatures remained relatively mild, with Safdarjung logging a minimum of 10.4 degrees Celsius, Palam 10.7 degrees Celsius, Ridge 11.4 degrees Celsius and Lodhi Road 11.2 degrees Celsius.

For Tuesday, the India Meteorological Department (IMD) has forecast maximum and minimum temperatures to settle around 20 degrees Celsius and 8 degrees Celsius, respectively, also issuing a yellow weather alert for dense fog in parts of the capital.

Early-morning fog is expected to persist for the next few days, the weather officer said. Delhi’s 24-hour average Air Quality Index (AQI) stood at 210, in the ‘poor’ category.

Data from the Decision Support System (DSS) showed that the transport sector was the single-largest local contributor, accounting for 12.2 per cent of the pollution load. Peripheral industries contributed 10.9 per cent, while industrial sources within the city accounted for 10.1 per cent.

Other local sources included residential emissions (3.1 per cent), construction activity (2 per cent) and waste burning (1.1 per cent).

Among NCR districts, Jhajjar emerged as the biggest contributor to the capital’s pollution at 11.8 per cent, followed by Sonipat (6.7 per cent), Baghpat (3.2 per cent), Rohtak (2.4 per cent), Gurgaon (2.2 per cent) and Panipat (1.3 per cent). Ghaziabad (4.3 per cent) and Gautam Budh Nagar (3.9 per cent) also added significantly to Delhi’s pollution load.

According to the Air Quality Early Warning System, Delhi’s air is likely to remain in the ‘poor’ category till February 4, before improving to ‘moderate’ levels on February 5, officials said. On Monday morning, the average AQI settled at 188. The air quality was ‘moderate ‘ at 21 stations while it was ‘poor’ at 16 stations.