Overview
- Delhi’s minimum rose to 4.3°C at Safdarjung from 2.9°C a day earlier, ending a five-day cold wave, with Palam at 4.7°C and other stations also showing slight relief.
- Dense to very dense fog continued across Delhi-NCR and parts of north India, with visibility earlier falling to 50 metres or even zero at some airports and improving to 700–800 metres at Delhi by morning.
- Air quality stayed in the ‘very poor’ range with the citywide AQI around 346 and several sites in the mid-300s to high-300s, as forecasts indicate a potential slide to ‘severe’ around January 18.
- IMD projects minimums to climb by 3–5°C over the next four days, with light to moderate rain or snow over the western Himalayas and possible rain over Punjab, Haryana, Chandigarh and west Uttar Pradesh between January 18 and 20.
- Regional impacts persisted as Gurugram dipped to 1.8°C and Chandigarh saw a cold day, flights and trains faced delays in low visibility, and Haryana extended school vacations to January 17.