Winter in last leg as mercury set to rise; showers expected today

Gurgaon: Winter is almost over as the maximum and minimum temperatures are likely to rise over the next few days. The night temperature is predicted to rise to 10 degrees Celsius by this weekend, according to India Meteorological Department (IMD).

The city is likely to get light rain on Wednesday, but it won’t affect mercury much, officials said. The daytime temperature is expected to rise to 24 degrees Celsius by the end of the week.

On Tuesday, the minimum temperature rose by nearly a notch to 8.6 degrees C from Monday’s 7.7 degrees, near normal for this time of the year. The maximum temperature, however, witnessed a dip from the day before (21.2 degrees C) at 20.9 degrees on Tuesday — 2.3 notches above normal. The relative humidity was 52%.

Moderate fog enveloped the city on Tuesday morning, while IGI airport recorded dense fog with visibility remaining between 50 and 150 metres for around two hours.

An increase in wind speed to 8kmph from Monday’s 5kmph later in the morning drove away the fog and the sun shone bright at noon, bringing some relief. According to an IMD forecast, moderate fog will continue in the morning for the next two days. “Both minimum and maximum temperatures will gradually increase in the coming days. Weather may be misty, and

The city’s air quality deteriorated to ‘very poor’ at 343 on Tuesday from 294 (poor) on Monday.

Meanwhile in Delhi, the maximum temperature was 22.8 degrees Celsius on Tuesday. The night temperature was recorded at 8.3 degrees Celsius, two degrees below normal, on Tuesday.

IMD data shows that the maximum temperature was recorded at 18.6 degrees Celsius, four notches below normal, on Jan 31. The maximum temperature in Feb has been showing an increasing trend as it has been hovering above 20 degrees Celsius since Feb 4.