New Delhi, Dec 29 (IANS): Despite foggy skies, Delhi on Thursday recorded a slight rise in minimum temperature, with the mercury at 9.6 degrees Celsius at Safdarjung observatory and 9.8 degrees Celsius in the Palam area during early morning hours.

"Due to rise in minimum and maximum temperatures by 3-5 degrees Celsius, cold wave, cold day, and dense fog conditions have abated from Punjab, Haryana, Delhi and Rajasthan," the India Meteorological Department (IMD) said.

A fresh spell of dense to very dense fog conditions is, however, likely to commence over the plains of northwest India from December 31 and cold wave conditions from January 2.

The IMD said that the rise in minimum temperatures by 2-3 degrees Celsius is very likely over plains of northwest India during next 24 hours and gradual fall by 3-5 degrees Celsius during subsequent 2 days. Due to this, it said, the cold wave and cold day conditions is likely to occur in isolated pockets over Punjab, Haryana-Chandigarh-Delhi, West Uttar Pradesh and north Rajasthan on January 2 and 3.

Delhi's maximum temperature is expected to hover around 23 degrees Celsius, with the minimum temperature likely to fall to 7 degrees Celsius by the end of the day. The minimum temperature on Wednesday was recorded at 6.3 degrees Celsius, while the maximum temperature was 21.8 degrees Celsius - one notch above normal.

Meanwhile, as per the System of Air Quality and Weather Forecasting And Research (SAFAR), the city's overall Air Quality Index (AQI) was recorded at 304 in the "very poor" category. The concentration of both PM 2.5 and PM 10 in the environment was recorded at 304 and 177, respectively, under "very poor" and "moderate" categories, respectively on Thursday.

As per SAFAR, the overall air quality of the city is expected to deteriorate further to 313 on Friday.