Delhi air gets worse, may go down further

NEWDELHI: Low temperature and absence of winds resulted in very poor air quality on Monday morning with the Air Quality Index (AQI) in Delhi spiking to 386 in “very poor” category, according to the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB).

The air quality is expected to deteriorate further over the day and could breach 400 level to enter ‘severe’ category.

Monday morning’s AQI was 18 points higher than the 368 average on Sunday when the India-Sri Lanka Test match at Feroze Shah Kotla cricket ground had to be halted briefly after players complained of poor air quality.

The Met department has, however, predicted “cloudy sky with light rains” on Wednesday which is expected to clear the sky and wash up some of the pollutants, particularly the particulate matter. The city has been under a grip of very poor level of air pollution over the past few weeks.

The minimum temperature recorded on Monday morning was 8.3 degrees Celsius again one notch below normal.

The minimum temperature that had dropped below eight degrees Celsius last week is likely to increase to around 11 degrees Celsius from Tuesday. The maximum temperature recorded on Sunday was 23.9 degrees Celsius, which was one degree below normal.

“It will be cloudy sky with possibility of light rain on December 6,” a MeT department official said.

Delhi has been reeling under “very poor” category air quality for the last many days. This year, the pollution levels entered the ‘severe’ zone on November 7. The AQI hit its peak of 486, this highest so far, on November 9. The last time Delhi witnessed such prolonged spell of severe air quality was in November 2016 when the city faced its worst smog in 17 years.

THE AIR QUALITY IS EXPECTED TO DETERIORATE FURTHER OVER THE DAY AND COULD BREACH 400 LEVEL TO ENTER ‘SEVERE’ CATEGORY.