Chilly, foggy and polluted day to welcome New Year
NEW DELHI: The last day of 2017 and the New Year day in 2018 would be chilly and foggy, it has been forecast.
With wind speed expected to being very low and moisture levels increasing scientists at the Central Pollution Control Board have said that pollution levels could also be in the ‘very poor’ zone. It could even breach the ‘severe’ levels once again.
“The mercury level is expected to drop to around five degrees Celsius on the last day of 2017 and the New Year day of 2018,” said a senior official of the regional weather forecasting centre in New Delhi.
MET officials also said that the national Capital could be engulfed by dense fog on the last day of the year and visibility could drop to less than 200 metres. On January 1, 2018 there could be moderate fog. Visibility could be around 200-500 metres.
“The low wind speed and increasing moisture levels, particularly during the early morning hours would trigger dense to moderate fog over the weekend. The fog would, however, fade once the sun shines and the wind speed picks up later during the day,” said the MET official.
On Friday, the mercury dropped to 6.8 degrees Celsius. The maximum temperature was hovering around 25.3 degrees Celsius, which was at least five degrees above the climatic normal.
“While high moisture levels would trap the pollutants, the low velocity winds won’t be able to flush out the pollutants. Pollution levels could rise,” said D Saha, head of the Central Pollution Control Board’s air quality laboratory.
VERY POOR AIR
On Friday, the average Air Quality Index of Delhi was 364 compared to 378 on Thursday. An AQI value between 300 and 400 on a scale of 0-500 is considered as very poor.
In the morning, some stations such as Anand Vihar, Punjabi Bagh, RK Puram, and CRRI, Mathura Road, had breached the severe level, which means the AQI in these stations was above 400.
SAFAR – India’s official pollution forecasting system – has predicted that levels of particulate matter could shoot up drastically over the year end and New Year. The AQI could once again plunge into ‘severe’ levels.
On Friday around 9 pm the level of PM10 was round 368ug/ m3. The concentration of PM2.5 was around 213ug/m3. When the level of PM10 and PM2.5 crosses the 500 and 300 respectively it is considered as an emergency.