Air quality worse, min temperature in city up to 10.8°C

NEW DELHI: Delhi’s air quality on Saturday deteriorated to the “very poor” category of the air quality index (AQI), a turn that the India Meteorological Department (IMD) attributed to the light rain in some parts of Delhincr on Friday.

IMD officials said wind speed had started picking up from Saturday and will remain high over the next few days, which would keep the pollution under control.

The Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB)’S air quality index for Delhi on Saturday was 301, in the ”very poor” zone. On Friday, the AQI of Delhi was 234, in the ”poor” category.

IMD scientists said by Saturday afternoon, wind speeds in Delhi had improved to around 12 kmph. However, the pollution spike seen was an impact of the accumulation of pollutants over the past 24 hours, because of the light rain in parts of Delhi and NCR, which led to increased moisture content in the air.

Kuldeep Srivastava, head of IMD’S regional weather forecasting centre, said from Sunday, wind speed will improve drastically, which will also result in the dispersion of pollutants.

“For the next two or three days, the wind speed will be high. The main reason behind this is the passing of two western disturbances back to back. Usually, once a western disturbance has passed over a region, the wind speed picks up,” Srivastava said.

He also said the dense fog over the city will lift owing to the strong wind.

Union ministry of earth science’s air quality monitoring centre, System of Air Quality and Weather Forecasting and Research (Safar), also said the AQI is expected to remain in the “poor” category on Sunday but will improve to the ”moderate” category by Monday.

“The improved ventilation condition is likely to influence the AQI positively for the next few days. The AQI is likely to improve to “moderate” category on January 11 and January 12. No sudden deterioration in AQI is expected in the next few days,” the Safar forecast said.

Meanwhile, the temperature on Saturday remained higher than the season’s normal. The minimum temperature at Safdarjung observatory, considered the city’s official marker, was 10.8 degrees Celsius, four above the season’s normal. The maximum temperature was 19.7°C.

Srivastava said from Monday, the temperatures will dip slightly to around 8-9°C. “There will be a dip, but it will not be a drastic one,” he said.