Delhi breaths cleanest air in months

NEW DELHI: After almost three months of choking pollutants and smog, Delhi on Saturday breathed much cleaner air, as the rains and wind speed markedly improved air quality for the second consecutive day.

Harmful pollutants, including particulate matters, nitrogen oxides, carbon monoxides and ozone remained, in goodmoderate level across Gurugram and Noida.

The air quality for Saturday, according to the data from Centre’s air quality research agency System of Air Quality and Weather Forecasting and Research (SAFAR) and Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) was moderate, after mostly being “very poor” and occasionally “poor” till January 26, this year, since November 2016.

SAFAR also predicts better air quality for Sunday for 10 weather stations across Delhi, Noida and Gurugram.

According to the experts, rains on January 26 and 27, and the light winds are the reason for this drastic improvement.

“We will study the exact reasons behind such fall in pollutants, though rains are definitely the reason as the particulate matters get settled on the ground,” Polash Mukherjee, Research Associate at CSE (Centre of Science and Environment), said.

He added that the overall reason is however a cumulative effect of winds and rains.

Delhi saw rains on the night of Wednesday, January 25, which continued on Thursday, January 26, and Friday morning. The city for these three days witnessed at least 30.3 mm rainfall.

“On Saturday, winds from north-west blew at 15-20 kmph, Friday saw a similar situation. Delhi will see good wind speed for couple of days. This helped in dispersing the pollutants and maintaining the air quality,” Mahesh Palawat, director private weather forecaster Skymet, said.