Delhi enjoys ‘poor’ air, clear sky, but it may worsen again

Winds at 28kmph flushed out dust; may slow down to 6kmph on Tuesday: IMD

of pollutants. The wind speed will drop to 15-20kmph on Monday. However, it will slow down to 6-8 kmph on Tuesday, when air quality may dip again,” said a senior IMD scientist.

The scientists warned the air quality could deteriorate further on November 20 -21 due to a host of factors --- low wind speed, cloud cover, moderate fog and drop in mercury, which together result in a toxic combination of smog.

“High moisture content in fog traps pollutants while cloud cover bars sunlight from reaching the surface. With a drop in temperature, the air becomes cold and heavier. All these factors lead to accumulation of pollutants, which could not be dispersed if wind speed is low, resulting in the deterioration of air quality,” said Kuldeep Srivastava, head, regional weather forecasting centre (RWFC), IMD.

The CPCB-LED task force had reviewed the pollution levels on Saturday and lifted the ban on industries run on coal.

Schools also reopened in the city, which were shut on Thursday-friday after deterioration in air quality.

Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal had said that he will take a decision whether to re-introduce the odd-even road rationing scheme, on Monday. Also, if the CPCB-LED task force come out with an advisory of shutting down schools in wake of bad air quality, the Delhi government will follow the directions. The government had implemented the odd-even scheme during November 4-15.

The share of stubble burning in neighbouring Haryana and Punjab to overall pollution in Delhi was just 2% on Sunday, as per the System of Air Quality and Weather Forecasting and Research (Safar), the pollution forecasting wing of the MOES.

“The air quality is likely to deteriorate slightly to ‘poor’ to lower end of ‘very poor’ category on November 19. Further deterioration is expected to be in the higher end of ‘very poor’ category by November 20,” said a senior Safar scientist.

Najafgarh