The national capital felt especially festive as the temperature dropped in anticipation of the year-end celebrations and the city’s Yuletide spirit. The national capital’s minimum temperature on Sunday fell to 9.1°C, according to the India Meteorological Department (IMD), even as locals awoke to a customarily chilly and foggy morning. The minimum temperature was 9.1°C, according to the Lodhi Road observatory. In the morning, images from Lodhi Road, Safdarjung Road, Jor Bagh, Sri Aurobindo Marg, and AIIMS revealed a dense layer of fog hanging overhead, with very few cars and commuters using the streets.
Earlier, on Saturday, the Palam observatory of the national capital recorded a minimum temperature of 14°C, while Safdarjung logged 12.2°C.
As the chill tightened its grip on the national capital, many were seen huddling around bonfires to keep themselves warm.
A few of the commuters said that the mercury fell significantly in the early hours of Saturday and that the cold was extreme.
A few foreign visitors in the city for medical care expressed dissatisfaction over the lack of adequate shelter houses in the capital. “We are forced to spend nights on open roads as there is no space in Rain Basera (a shelter home),” said a woman who identified herself as Nikhat Parveen. “People who have been living in these shelters for the past ten years have taken over, so we are not permitted to enter them. “Externals are not permitted,” a second individual said.
Meanwhile, the overall Air Quality Index (AQI) in the national capital was recorded in the ‘Very Poor’ range, at 8 am on Sunday, according to SAFAR-India (System of Air Quality and Weather Forecasting and Research).
The national weather forecasting agency earlier said the minimum temperature across North India was likely to increase by 2-3 degrees Celsius over the next three days.