January 2024 colder, more polluted, shows Delhi data

Delhi's nights this January were its coldest since 2013, the days were its coldest since 2015, even as the air was its most polluted since 2016, showed data from monitoring agencies, underscoring what has been a month of weather extremes for the national capital.

- Jasjeev Gandhiok

NEW DELHI: Data from the India Meteorological Department (IMD) shows that the city's average maximum temperature this month was 17.9°C 2.2°C below the long-period average for 1970-2020 (20.1°C).

This is Delhi's lowest average maximum for January since at least 2015, when it was also 17.9°C.

The numbers also corroborated what the Capital's residents have lived through for a month that January nights have been chillier than usual.

According to IMD data, the city's average minimum temperature this month was 6.4°C, almost a degree lower than the LPA of 7.5°C, and the lowest since 2013 (6.1°C).

To be sure, numbers analysed by HT show a minor deviation from IMD's data due to the weather agency having a day's lag in calculating the maximum temperature. According to IMD, the January maximum average so far is 17.7°C.

The lower-than-usual temperatures, coupled with glacially slow winds, deepened and prolonged Delhi's pollution crisis, force-feeding residents air laced with pollutants well above any accepted standard.

Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) data shows that till January 30, Delhi recorded three "severe" air days, 28 "very poor" days, and just one "poor" day. As a result, the city's 24-hour air quality index (AQI) averaged at 354 this month, the highest since the 370 in 2016- the first full year that CPCB started tracking pollution levels.