Delhi woke up shrouded in thick fog on Wednesday morning, December 31, 2025. Visibility was very low, recorded at just 50 metres at Palam and Safdarjung stations at 6:30 a.m. The India Meteorological Department (IMD) issued an orange alert for dense fog between 8:30 a.m. and 10 a.m. The city’s air quality remained grim, with a 24-hour average Air Quality Index (AQI) of 384, showing ‘very poor’ air. Data from the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) revealed that 21 monitoring stations recorded ‘very poor’ air quality, while 16 stations fell under the ‘severe’ category. Anand Vihar reported the worst AQI at 452, indicating hazardous pollution levels. According to CPCB, AQI levels are classified as good (0-50), satisfactory (51-100), moderate (101-200), poor (201-300), very poor (301-400), and severe (401-500). The Air Quality Early Warning System predicted that the AQI would worsen to ‘severe’ on January 1, before improving slightly to ‘very poor’ on January 2. However, air quality is expected to remain ‘very poor’ for the following six days. Officials said the poor air was caused by low ventilation index below 6,000 square metres per second and slow winds under 10 km/h. These conditions limit pollution dispersal. On Tuesday, the AQI was 388, a slight improvement from Monday’s ‘severe’ level of 401. The IMD reported the minimum temperature at Safdarjung and Ayanagar as 6.4°C, slightly below normal. The maximum temperature is expected to reach 23°C. Dense fog will likely continue throughout the day. Palam recorded a minimum temperature of 7.7°C, Lodhi Road 6.8°C, and Ridge 7.8°C. For New Year’s Day, the weather department forecasts a generally cloudy sky with light rain over Delhi.