Gurugram on Tuesday saw a slight improvement in weather conditions, with the minimum temperature recovering by 2.7 degrees by climbing to 3.2°C up from 0.6°C on Monday. The district experienced its coldest morning of the season on Monday, plunging the city into severe cold wave conditions. Residents in outer pockets, including in Sohna and Manesar, observed frost and thin layers of ice forming on their vehicles and nearby open fields.
The India Meteorological Department (IMD) on Tuesday issued a dense to very dense fog warning at isolated places in the district until Wednesday. Earlier on Monday morning, a ‘yellow alert’, was issued by IMD, warning residents to not step out due to a sharp drop in overnight temperatures from 4.1°C on Sunday.
The maximum temperature recorded during the day in Gurugram was around 20.2°C on Tuesday, according to IMD.
According to district administration officials, major city stretches, including Golf Course road, Gurugram Delhi expressway (NH 48) and Sohna elevated road had poor visibility due to dense fog during the early morning hours. “The lowest visibility reported in Gurugram and nearby areas was 600 metres at 7.30am,” said a senior IMD official.
Meanwhile, winds remained calm until 9am. It picked up to the speed of 12km/h to 17km/h in the north-west direction at 9.30am and continued in a similar trend throughout the day.
Nitin Setiya, a resident of Manesar, shared a video on social media on Monday morning showing frost forming on his car. “This is not a hill station; this is the Millennium City, where the weather has turned freezing cold,” Setiya said, while showing the bonnet and rooftop of his car covered with frost. Officials at IMD confirmed the frost is expected to persist until the mercury levels remain below four degrees.
Despite a slight improvement in overall weather conditions, the district’s air quality on Monday, according to the Central Pollution Control Board’s (CPCB’s) daily bulletin at 4pm, the AQI was lodged at 378 in the ‘very poor’ category.
At around 10pm, the district’s AQI showed slight improvement at 373, still in the ‘very poor’ category. Among the four active air quality monitoring stations, at 10pm, Sector 51 recorded an AQI of 393; Vikas Sadan lodged an AQI of 427 which is in the ’severe’ category; NISE Gwal Pahari and Teri Gram recorded AQI at 353 and 318, respectively, according to live monitoring through the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB)’s Sameer App.
The IMD weekly weather forecast report released on Sunday had anticipated a dry weather spell to continue throughout the week in Southern Haryana, including in Gurugram. Weather warnings currently in place for Gurugram are expected to be lifted on Thursday as cold wave conditions gradually ease.
IMD’s advisory on Monday alerted commuters to drive slowly due to poor weather conditions and dense fog in isolated pockets to avoid any untoward incidents. It also cautioned farmers in the district against irrigating wheat, mustard, and field pea crops during the early morning hours to avoid the application of water to the produce at that time.