Delhi wakes up to another cold day

New Delhi, Jan 16 (IANS) In the wake of a cold wave since the past two days, the mercury again dipped on Sunday in the national capital, intensifying the winter chill.

According to the India Meteorological Department (IMD), the city's maximum and minimum temperatures have been pegged at 14 and 8, respectively, while the relative humidity at 8.30 a.m. was recorded at 87 per cent.

Due to the cold wave, the temperatures also plunged to a maximum of 14.8 degrees and a minimum of 6.1 degrees.

"Similar to yesterday (Saturday), today also there was a layer of moderate fog/low cloud during the day over Delhi NCR, also over Punjab, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh and north Rajasthan," the weather department said, adding that it has prevented sunlight to reach the surface.

"Also, light winds are blowing over the region. These conditions led to a severe cold day over Delhi NCR," it added.

As per the IMD, the next three days, starting January 18 will be densely to moderately foggy with the possibility of light rain on January 19 and 21.

Meanwhile, Delhi's Air Quality Index (AQI) stood in the 'very poor' category at 235, according to the System of Air Quality and Weather Forecasting And Research's (SAFAR).

The level of both PM 2.5 and PM 10 pollutants stood in the 'poor' and 'moderate' categories, respectively.

According to the air quality and weather bulletin, the AQI is likely to remain in the lower end of the 'very poor' category on Sunday and Monday.