New Delhi :
Cold wave conditions are likely to persist across northern India as rains soaked several areas in the region and snowfall was recorded in Kashmir and Ladakh in the intervening night of Thursday and Friday. Overnight rainfall in the national capital brought the maximum temperature down, the weather department said.
The minimum temperature recorded in the national capital was 11℃, while the maximum temperature is expected to be around 17℃. According to the weather office, fog at many places and dense fog at some places have been predicted. However, overall, the fog will be moderate. Temperatures will fall between a minimum of 7 degrees Celsius and a maximum of 17 degrees," an IMD official said.
The NCR-Delhi area will witness a cloudy day on Friday, with weather conditions slightly improving from January 18 onwards, the India Meteorological Department (IMD) had said on Thursday.
On Friday, the overall air quality index stood at 265(poor), up from 281 on Thursday. The AQI recorded in Noida - 326 and inGurugram - 302.
The India Meteorological Department has also predicted that states of Delhi, Punjab, Madhya Pradesh, Gujarat, Haryana, Uttarakhand andRajasthan are likely to receive rain/thunderstorm on Friday and Saturday due tothe prevalence of Western Disturbance (WD) as a cyclonic circulation lies overeast Afghanistan and adjoining Pakistan.
According to IMD, widespread rain is also likely to occurover Haryana, Chandigarh and Delhi in the next two days. "Isolatedthunderstorm accompanied with lightning also likely over Punjab, Haryana,Chandigarh and Rajasthan on January 17," the IMD said in its All IndiaWeather Warning Bulletin.
Dense fog in isolated pockets is very likely over Punjab,Haryana, Chandigarh and Delhi, Uttar Pradesh and Rajasthan and Tripura duringthe next two days.
Meanwhile, at least 12 trains were reported to be runninglate due to low visibility in the Northern Railway region.
Delhi experienced fog on Thursday morning, with air qualityrecorded as `poor`, accompanied by showers in various parts of the capital andadjoining areas. At least 12 Delhi-bound trains were delayed by several hoursdue to fog, according to Northern Railway officials.
According to System of Air Quality Weather Forecasting andResearch (SAFAR), the air quality index (AQI) may deteriorate slightly onFriday though it will remain between the upper end of `moderate` to `poor`category.
According to SAFAR, the overall AQI of Delhi on Thursday was245. The maximum temperature recorded in the Safdarjung area on Thursday was16.4 degrees Celsius, which was 4 degrees below normal, giving no respite topeople from the cold. The minimum temperature was 9 degrees.