Delhi shivers as mercury hits low of 5.8°C, IMD issues yellow alert for dense fog; ‘very poor’ AQI returns

Delhi continues to reel under cold day conditions on Friday, days after it recorded first cold day of the year on 6 January as mercury recorded low of 5.8 degrees Celsius. The India Meteorological Department (IMD) issued a nowcast warning at 5:30 AM, predicting possibility of light rainfall over Delhi-NCR and surrounding areas. The regions that are most likely to receive downpour are Jafarpur, Nazafgarh, Dwarka, Palam, IGI Airport, Ayanagar, Deramandi, Bahadurgarh, Gurugram, Faridabad and Ballabhgarh.

The weather department issued a yellow alert for dense fog during morning hours and predicted that the maximum temperature will be below normal by 1.6 to 3 degrees Celsius. "The maximum and minimum temperatures in Delhi are likely to be in the ranges of 16°C to 18°C and 5°C to 7°C, respectively," IMD said.

On Thursday, the national capital recorded the third lowest temperature this winter which settled at 5.8 degrees Celsius. The maximum temperatures remained lower than normal across all monitoring stations and Palam emerged as the coldest station with a minimum of 4.8 degrees Celsius. Ridge and Ayanagar all reported 5.8 degrees Celsius, according to the Meteorological Department.

Meanwhile, Delhi's base weather station, the Safdarjung observatory, recorded temperatures 1.1 notch below normal, that is a low of 5.8 degrees.