New Delhi, Dec 7 (IANS): It was a cold Friday morning in the national capital with the minimum temperature recorded at 8.8 degrees Celsius, the season's average, while the air quality remained in the 'very poor' category, the weather office said.

The humidity at 8.30 a.m. was 90 per cent, an unfavourable condition for pollutants to disperse.

"The sky will remain clear throughout the day, with mist or shallow fog in the morning and haze or smog thereafter," an India Meteorological Department (IMD) official told IANS.

The average PM2.5 readings at 9 a.m. was recorded at 179 micrograms per cubic metre while the average PM10 readings at the time were 333 micrograms per cubic metre.

The maximum temperature was likely to hover around 25 degrees Celsius.

On Thursday, the maximum temperature settled at 25.1 degrees Celsius while the minimum temperature was recorded at 9.8 degree Celsius, both one notch above the season's average.