City’s air quality improves to ‘poor’ category after rains
After staying in the ‘severe’ category for six days, Delhi’s air quality improved to the ‘poor’ category on Monday following rains a day before while the maximum temperature settled at 22.6° C, two notches above the season’s average. The 24-hour air quality index (AQI) of Delhi read 283 at 4.00 pm.
The AQIs of its neighbouring cities — Faridabad (260), Ghaziabad (212), Gurgaon (250), Greater Noida (242), and Noida (226) — were also recorded in the ‘poor’ category.
The government’s air quality forecast agency SAFAR said that the AQI improved on Monday “due to last night’s rain that scavenged particulate matter through wet deposition.”
On Tuesday, winds are likely to be low, reducing ventilation of pollutants, with the AQI expected to be ‘very poor,’ the System of Air Quality and Weather Forecasting and Research (SAFAR) said.
“On 29th (Wednesday) improvement is expected
due to high easterly winds that enhances ventilation of pollutants. Mixing layer height continues to be low (less than 1.0 km) and minimum temperature tends to drop gradually. The net effect is that the AQI remains to be within ‘very poor’ till 31st (December) and from 1st (January) onwards it is likely to improve to ‘poor,’” it said.
The weatherman has forecast generally cloudy sky
with the possibility of shallow fog on Tuesday morning with very light rain or drizzle towards the evening or night. The maximum and minimum temperature for Tuesday has been forecast to be around 22° C and 10° C respectively.
On Sunday, the minimum temperature settled at 9.8° C, two notches above normal, while the maximum temperature was 21.4° C, a notch above the season’s average.