Cold day continues in Delhi for fifth straight day: IMD

New Delhi, Jan 17 (IANS) Cold day conditions continued in the national capital for the fifth consecutive day on Monday, the India Meteorological Department (IMD) said.

The weatherman has forecast a partly cloudy sky with cold day conditions at isolated places in the city.

Since January 13, Delhi has been continuously recording cold days. The maximum and minimum temperatures were recorded to be 16 and 8.7 degrees Celsius.

There was a layer of moderate fog/low cloud during the day over Delhi NCR, also over Punjab, Haryana, UP & 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 severe cold day over Delhi NCR," it added.

As per 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) settled in the very poor category this morning, at 302 -- a slight improvement from the past few days.

The level of both PM 2.5 and PM 10 pollutants stood in the very poor and moderate categories, respectively.An AQI between zero and 50 is considered 'good', 51 and 100 'satisfactory', 101 and 200 'moderate', 201 and 300 'poor', 301 and 400 'very poor', then 401 and between 500 is considered 'severe.'

The weather and air quality bulletin said that the air quality over Delhi-NCT is likely to remain in the lower end of the very poor category on January 17 and 18. The air quality is likely to improve marginally and remain in the 'poor category' on January 19.

The air quality is likely to remain largely in the 'poor' to the lower end of the very poor category, it added.