Due to the weather, the India Meteorological Department (IMD) has cautioned that the fog situation in Delhi is going to escalate on the weekend and spillover into the run-up until 2026. The weather agency issued a yellow warning as the initial step in the three-tier warning system and advised people about the potential dense fog especially in the morning on Saturday and Sunday.
The Minister of the Environment of Delhi Manjinder Singh Sirsa also responded to the alert of the IMD, saying an approaching disturbance in the west would additionally deter the visibility because of dense fog. Western disturbances are weather patterns whereby moist air in the Mediterranean region is moved to West Asia into the Indian subcontinent. Once this air has gotten the moisture, as it comes into contact with the Himalayas, it lifts, condenses and causes rain as snow in the upper altitudes, rain in the plains and mists in the northern part of India.
In the meantime, the Early Warning System (EWS) of air pollution at the Centre showed that the quality of air in Delhi will not likely fall into the category of severe before the end of the year. But this winter the predictions of the system have been erratic. It had not predicted such drastic air quality conditions earlier this week, and on Tuesday, it reached the severe category.
Slow-speed winds on Friday led to a slight decrease in air quality in Delhi, which went to the category of very poor, two days following the relative improvement of the air quality. The Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) showed that the AQI was 332 at 4 pm, which is much higher than 271 on Wednesday and 234 on Thursday. Meteorologists had cautioned that additional decrease of winds may enable the build-up of fog and pollutants in the surface.
The level of fog will continue growing on the weekend since the speed of winds will decrease slightly, according to RK Jenamani, a senior scientist at IMD. Skymet vice-president Mahesh Palawat further stated that there have been two sequential western disturbances one of which has already hit the region and the other that is set to hit.
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