It was a bright, but chilly Christmas for Delhiites with occasional gusts of wind. The minimum temperature was recorded at 5.5 degrees Celsius, two notches below the season’s average.
It was a bright, but chilly Christmas for Delhiites with occasional gusts of wind. The minimum temperature was recorded at 5.5 degrees Celsius, two notches below the season’s average.
The maximum temperature was recorded at 19.2 degrees Celsius, two notches below the normal, at the Safdarjung observatory whose reading is considered to be the official temperature for the city. According to a Met department official, visibility, which was recorded at 1000 metres at 8.30 am, increased to 3,000 metres at 11.30 am. The humidity in air oscillated between 91 and 43 per cent. The MeT office has predicted overcast conditions for Satu-rday. “The skies will be partly cloudy. Shallow to moderate fog would occur in several parts of the city. The maximum and minimum temperatures are likely to hover around 20 and 7 degrees Celsius, resp-ectively,” the weatherman said. On Thursday the minimum temperature was rec-orded at 7.2 degrees Cels-ius, while the maximum settled at 19.2 degrees Celsius.
People celebrated Christmas with full fervour as thousands thronged churches and decked up cathedrals braving the winter chill. Delhi tuned to a celebratory note with the yuletide spirit with people sporting santa caps dotting the busy market places.
The auspicious occasion was ushered in through midnight masses, resonance of carols and merriment with people greeting and participating in the festivities despite the chill in the weather.
As bells tolled, people thr-onged churches and cathedrals decorated with twinkling lights for the midnight service to celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ.
Stores stocking Xmas merchandise were inundated with shoppers as exchange of greetings and gifts, community feasts and colourful processions marked the occasion.
Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal took part in the festivities by visiting the Sacred Heart Cathedral church and wishing merry Christmas to the people.
People used WhatsApp, Facebook and other online means of communication to send Christmas greetings to their families and loved ones.
The neighbourhoods of churches reverberated with traditional Christmas carols rendering the air festive with gospel bands enthralling the merry-makers with songs like Jingle Bells, Oh Holy Night and Santa Claus Is Coming to Town.
With air quality remaining relatively better due to strong wind movement across the city, the revellers enjoyed themselves to the hilt. Real time readings of the DPCC stations showed PM 2.5 hovering around the safe limit of 60 micrograms per cubic metre in most stations.
SAFAR’s average air quality index was “very poor”, while CPCB website had stations like Punjabi Bagh and Mandir Marg in the “poor” category.
