The India Meteorological Department (IMD) on Monday issued a red alert for Delhi-NCR, warning of extremely dense fog in the region. Amid cold spells and poor visibility, are schools in Delhi-NCR open or closed on Monday, 29 December? Here’s what we know.
1. Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath announced on Sunday that all schools up to Class 12 will remain shut until 1 January due to severe cold conditions. The order applies to ICSE, CBSE, and UP Board schools across the state, according to a government notification cited by PTI.
2. In view of the intense cold and dense fog, Noida’s district administration declared holidays as a precautionary step for all schools from 29 December to 1 January, India Today reported.
3. According to Jagran Josh, most schools in Delhi, Noida, and Gurgaon had already closed earlier for the winter break. Many institutions will not hold regular classes due to winter vacation schedules, though parents are advised to check individual school calendars for exact resumption dates.
Dense fog, cold wave conditions
Delhi witnessed dense fog early Monday, 29 December, with the IMD predicting the “possibility of cold day conditions at isolated places” in west Uttar Pradesh on 28 and 29 December and in east Uttar Pradesh.
While a red alert was issued for Delhi, an orange alert was issued in other parts of North India, including Uttar Pradesh and Haryana.
“Dense to very dense fog conditions very likely to continue during night/morning hours over Himachal Pradesh, Punjab, Haryana-Chandigarh, West Uttar Pradesh till 31st December and East Uttar Pradesh till 1st Jan with reduction thereafter,” the IMD said.
Cold day conditions were also forecast in parts of Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand on 28 and 29 December.
In the Delhi NCR region, dense fog was observed at a few places, with very dense fog at isolated locations during the morning hours.
The maximum and minimum temperatures in Delhi are likely to be in the ranges of 21°C to 23°C and 7°C to 9°C, respectively.
Minimum temperatures will be near normal (-0.5°C to -1.5°C), and the maximum temperatures will be above normal (1.0°C to 3.0°C) over Delhi.
Delhi AQI
Delhi recorded an Air Quality Index (AQI) of 403 around 8 am on Monday.
An AQI between 0 and 50 is considered ‘good’, 51 to 100 ‘satisfactory’, 101 to 200 ‘moderate’, 201 to 300 ‘poor’, 301 to 400 ‘very poor’, and 401 to 500 ‘severe’, according to Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) standards.
The national capital recorded air quality in the ‘very poor’ category on Sunday with an overall AQI of 390. According to data on the CPCB’s Sameer App, 19 monitoring stations in Delhi reported air quality in the ‘severe’ category, with Anand Vihar recording the highest AQI of 457, while the remaining recorded ‘very poor’ levels.
