Air quality deteriorates, Ghaziabad’s is the worst

NOIDA: The air quality of the region has deteriorated in the past 24 hours with Ghaziabad turning out to be the worst polluted city of the country on Wednesday, while Greater Noida was the third worst. Noida remained in the ‘poor’ category, although its air quality index (AQI) levels oscillated towards the wrong end.

According to pollution monitoring agencies, the region saw a drop in wind speed, which led to the worsening of air quality that the agencies predict, will worsen further on Thursday.

“The wind speed on Wednesday dropped to an average of eight kilometres per hour (kmph) against 12 kmph a day earlier. Also, the wind speed is only picking up during the day hours, so the ventilation conditions of the city are not very good. This is one of the major reasons why the air quality deteriorated. The wind speed will remain low on Thursday as well, but will increase towards Friday,” said Kuldeep Srivastava, head, regional weather forecasting centre, India Meteorological Department (IMD).

According to the System of air quality and weather forecasting and research (SAFAR), the air quality is likely to deteriorate on Thursday.

“Surface winds are low and forecasted to improve during the day. The air quality index is likely to marginally deteriorate Thursday and likely to stay at the ‘poor’ to the lower end of the ‘very poor’ category. An increase in wind speed and boundary layer height is forecasted from February 26. This is likely to influence the air quality index positively and ‘poor’ AQI is forecasted for February 26 and 27,” said the SAFAR statement.

Meanwhile, the mercury soared in the region with Delhi’s Safdarjung observatory seeing its warmest February day since 2006, the weather officials said.

The Safdarjung observatory recorded a maximum temperature of 32.5 degrees Celsius on Wednesday, seven degrees higher than the season’s average, while the minimum was recorded at 12 °C, one degree above the average.

“Delhi saw the highest maximum temperature for February since 2006. Due to clear sun, and variable and slow winds, the mercury may soar by up to two degrees over the next few days,” said Srivastava.

The maximum and minimum temperatures for Noida were recorded at 32 degrees °C and 13.7 degrees °C, against 31.6 degrees °C and 12.6 degrees °C a day before, respectively.