Chennai: New Year’s Day brought in the chills in Delhi, with the mercury plummeting to 1.1 degrees Celsius, the lowest in 15 years.
This coupled with very dense fog lowered visibility to zero metre, affecting traffic movement.
According to the India Meteorological Department (IMD), the lowest minimum temperature recorded in January last year was 2.4 degrees Celsius.
According to the IMD, ‘very dense’ fog is when visibility is between 0 and 50 metres. In case of ‘dense’ fog, visibility is between 51 and 200 metres, ‘moderate’ 201 and 500 metres, and ‘shallow’ 501 and 1,000 metres.
Delhi’s Air Quality Index (AQI) also remained between the ‘very poor’ to ‘severe’ category on Friday morning.
It is expected that the minimum temperature will start rising from this week, under the influence of an ‘intense’ western disturbance which will affect northwest India from 2-6 January.