Air quality remains ‘severe’ as rain gives capital a miss

SPOILER Not enough moisture to trigger rain; IMD says wind may pick up on Thursday, clear pollution

NEWDELHI: Delhi’s air quality continued to remain in the ‘severe’ category for the second consecutive day on Tuesday but is likely to improve slightly from Thursday as wind speed expected to pick up, the India Meteorological Department (IMD) has said.

Delhi’s air quality index (AQI) stood at 413 at 4 pm against Monday’s 403. The air quality dipped to the ‘severe’ category on Monday after a gap of nearly a month.

The AQI value at most of the city’s 36 monitoring stations, including Anand Vihar, Rohini, Narela, DTU, Bawana, Dwarka and Wazirpur, among others was recorded on the higher side of the ‘severe’ category. The AQI had last entered the severe zone on November 13, recording 460. The air quality in NCR towns such as Faridabad, Ghaziabad and Noida was also in the severe zone.

According to CPCB officials, high levels of moisture and low wind speed in addition to local pollutants pushed the air quality to the ‘severe’ category.

“As per input received from IMD, wind direction will change from Thursday. At present, easterly winds, which are weak and bring moisture, were blowing, trapping pollutants. It is likely to change to north-westerly, which are strong and cold winds that help in the disbursal of pollutants,” said a senior official.

Even though light rain was expected on Tuesday, scientists at IMD said the moisture was not enough to trigger rain. Only traces could be expected over parts of NCR on Wednesday.

On Thursday, the minimum temperature is expected to drop to 7 degrees Celsius while the maximum temperature is likely to drop to 21 degrees Celsius, both a notch below the season’s average, IMD officials said.

On Tuesday, the maximum temperature was recorded at 22.3 degrees Celsius, a notch below normal. The minimum temperature settled at 8.8 degrees Celsius.

The multi-agency task force headed by CPCB has directed agencies to intensify anti-pollution measures in 19 pollution hot spots in Delhi and eight in NCR towns. “As there are chances that the air quality could improve from Thursday, no new recommendations have been made,” said a senior CPCB official, who attended the meeting.