Delhi sees coldest January morning in 2 years as mercury hits 4.6°C; AQI remains 'very poor', IMD issues fog alert

COLD wave gripped the national capital as mercury plunged 4.6 degrees Celsius on Friday — lowest levels so far this winter, making it the coldest January morning in 2 years. The India Meteorological Department (IMD) issued a yellow alert for dense fog on Saturday and predicted mainly clear skies for the capital city, following the coldest morning of the ongoing winter season.

Predicting below normal minimum temperatures by around 1.6 to 3.0 degrees Celsius, the weather office said that the maximum and minimum temperatures over Delhi are likely to be in the range of 16 to 18 degrees Celsius and 5 to 7 degrees Celsius, respectively.

Delhi's Indira Gandhi International (IGI) Airport reported 5 degrees Celsius temperature at around 7:00 AM with 200 metre visibility due to dense fog. IMD predicted that dense fog conditions will continue over northwest India this week and warned of cold day conditions in neighbouring states, including Himachal Pradesh, Rajasthan, Punjab and Haryana.

The second lowest temperature of this season was recorded on 4 and 5 December 2025 when the mercury struck 5.6 degrees Celsius. The third coldest day of this winter season was 1 December, when the mercury stood at 5.7 degrees Celsius.

In the coming days, cold wave conditions are likely to persist over parts of north and northwest India, including Delhi-NCR, according to IMD. However, no severe cold wave conditions are threatening yet, the weather office said.

Delhi AQI today

On Saturday, Delhi reported 'very poor' air quality, with the 24-hour average Air Quality Index (AQI) reading at 361. The AQI returned to 'very poor' category on Friday when it stood at 345 and has been deteriorating since.

Nehru Nagar monitoring station registered the worst AQI today, falling in the ‘severe’ range with a reading at 426. Several other locations reported hazardous AQI today, Anand Vihar, Vivek Vihar, Dwarka Sector 8 and Sirifort. Pusa Road recorded the best AQI today at 298 and was the only station that registered ‘poor’ air quality. Among the 39 air quality monitoring stations across the capital city, a total of 33 recorded AQI in 'very poor' category.

According to the Decision Support System (DSS) data of Pune's Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorology (IITM), vehicular emissions were the primary contributor to Delhi's pollution load at 16.9 per cent. Delhi and peripheral industries accounted for 13.1 per cent pollution load, followed by 4.3 per cent residential emissions. Other local sources such as waste burning contributed 1.6 per cent to Delhi's pollution load, construction activities at 2.1 per cent and road dust at 1.1 per cent.