Dusty winds push up city’s min temp to highest this yr

High-velocity winds, carrying dust from the deserts of Rajasthan, continued to blow over Delhi on Wednesday, pushing the air quality in the national capital into the “very poor” category for the first time since this February. The layer of dust over Delhi-ncr also kept the night temperature from falling, with the result that Wednesday recorded a minimum temperature of 31.4 degrees Celsius, the highest so far this year, the India Meteorological Department (IMD) said.

Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) recordings show that on Wednesday, the overall air quality index (AQI) in Delhi was 305, categorised as ”very poor” on the AQI scale. On Tuesday, the average AQI was 205, in the “poor” category.

IMD scientists said dusty south-westerly winds have been blowing through the national capital since Tuesday, spiking pollution levels. At 5pm Wednesday, the PM10 level peaked at 384ug/m3, over three times higher than the acceptable standard of 100ug/m3 in India.

Experts said now that Delhi is on its way to unlocking, focus should be on managing pollution sources to prevent such

NEW DELHI:

spikes.

Kuldeep Srivastava, head of IMD’S regional weather forecasting centre, said, “Post-noon on Wednesday, the dust film over Delhi cleared up a bit, but since pollution observatories take a 24-hour average of pollutants, an improvement will be visible on the charts only on Thursday.”

The Safdarjung weather station, which is considered the official marker for the entire city, recorded a minimum temperature of 31.4°C on Wednesday, which was four degrees above what is considered normal for this time of the year. The maximum temperature was 42.2°C, three degrees above normal.

“The layer of dust and the clouds trapped the heat from the surface and did not allow the ground to cool off. This kept the minimum temperature high. Wednesday’s is the highest minimum temperature that Delhi has recorded this year,” Srivastava said. The IMD forecast, however, said under the impact of a lowpressure system, which is forming north of the Bay of Bengal, the wind direction over Delhi will change to easterly from late Friday night, which will result in light rainfall in parts of Delhi and NCR. From Sunday, the intensity of rainfall will increase and, as a result, the temperature will fall below 40°C, it said.