Noida air betters to ‘very poor’
FURTHER IMPROVEMENT IN AIR QUALITY IS EXPECTED ON JANUARY 20, SAID SAFAR ON SUNDAY
NOIDA: The air quality of Noida, Ghaziabad and Greater Noida improved to ‘very poor’ on Sunday after being under ‘severe’ levels for the past three days. Weather experts said that better ventilation conditions on Sunday helped pull the air quality out of ‘severe’ zone.
The three cities, however, remained the most polluted in the country. According to the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB), the air quality index (AQI) of Greater Noida was 384 (‘very poor’) on Sunday against 438 a day earlier – both highest in the country on their respective days. Noida’s AQI on Sunday was 383 against 434 on Saturday, while Ghaziabad recoded an AQI of 368 against 423 a day earlier – third worst in the country.
An AQI between 101 and 200 is considered ‘moderate’, between 201 and 300 is ‘poor’, between 301 and 400 is ‘very poor’ and above 400 is considered ‘severe’.
“The changing wind directions and slightly better speed has improved the ventilation conditions in the region. The particle pollutants could be dispersed, thereby improving the air quality. The weather conditions are likely to improve over the next two days, so the air quality may further improve,” said Kuldeep Srivastava, head, regional weather forecasting centre, India Meteorological Department (IMD).
On Sunday, the wind direction changed from icy cold northwesterly to mostly easterly that led to lifting the fog, thereby blocking the sunlight and dropping the daytime mercury and cold day like conditions, Srivastava said.
According to IMD, the minimum temperature dipped for Noida, with Sunday seeing a minimum and maximum temperatures of 6.1 degrees Celsius and 15.1 degrees Celsius, against 7.8 degrees and 18.3 degrees a day earlier.
The major pollutant or PM2.5 in the region ventilated to become three times the safety standards against being eight times a day earlier.
The average PM2.5 for Noida on Sunday was 229.44 microgrammes per cubic metres (µg/ m3) against 351.22 µg/m3 on Saturday. The average PM2.5 for Greater Noida was 232.86 µg/m3 against 341.64 µg/m3 a day earlier. The PM2.5 level for Ghaziabad was 220.11 µg/m3 against 404.06 µg/m3 a day earlier. The safe limit for PM2.5 is 60µg/m3.
According to the System of Air Quality and Weather Forecasting and Research (Safar), the air quality is likely to stay in the ‘very poor’ category for the next two days. “Surface winds are moderate and East Northeasterly. The better wind speed has helped improve dispersion. The air quality is likely to stay in the same very poor category for the next two days. Further improvement is expected on January 20 in the lower end of the very poor to poor category,” Safar said on Sunday.