Red Alert Issued During Cold Wave; “Very Poor” Air Quality Persists in Delhi

GG News Bureau

New Delhi, 27th Jan. The capital city’s residents awoke to yet another chilly morning with thick fog engulfing the Delhi-NCR area. The India Meteorological Department (IMD) predicts that portions of Delhi will continue to see significant fog, with a low of about 5 degrees Celsius. On Saturday, the afternoon high is expected to be close to 20 degrees Celsius.

Because of the persistent cold temperatures and heavy fog, the weather service in northern India issued a “Red Alert” on Wednesday for the next four days. The city’s minimum temperature on Friday was measured to be 4.7 degrees Celsius. Due to heavy fog, at 8:30 am yesterday, both the Safdarjung and the Indira Gandhi airports had low visibility of 300 meters and 100 meters, respectively.

The minimum temperature is predicted to be between 6 and 10 degrees Celsius, while the daytime high is predicted to be between 21 and 23 degrees Celsius, according to IMD. According to the weather bureau, there will be thick fog and cold weather in north India over the next five days.

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Air quality in Delhi.

The System of Air Quality and Weather Forecasting and Research (SAFAR)-India reports that on Saturday, the national capital’s overall air quality was classified as “very poor.” These are the stages of air quality: AQI 201-300 for Stage I, 301-400 for Stage II, 401-450 for Stage III, and >450 for Stage IV indicate “severe plus” (severe plus).

An emergency meeting was called by the CAQM Sub-Committee, which oversees the execution of GRAP, to discuss the declining state of the Delhi-NCR air quality. The committee saw a rise in the average Air Quality Index (AQI), which it attributed to a decrease in the amount of air pollutants dispersed by local sources, foggy circumstances, and temperature reductions.

Trains and delayed flights

Due to the heavy fog, a number of trains and flights, either bound for Delhi or other locations, had delays in the morning. Due to the heavy fog yesterday, 34 trains as well as 22 domestic aircraft had delays.

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A cold day is defined as one in which the minimum temperature is below 10 degrees Celsius and the maximum temperature is at least 4.5 degrees below average