Gusty winds clear pollution, city’s air quality improves
Delhi recorded strong gusty winds on Monday, following which the air quality improved significantly. The 24-hour average air quality index (AQI) was recorded at 133 (moderate) at 4 pm on Monday, over 100 points lower than Sunday’s 242 (poor) logged at the same time, according to the national bulletin of the Central Pollution Control Board.
Delhi’s minimum temperature dipped by a couple of degrees and was recorded at 18.4 degrees Celsius (°C) as compared to 21.3°C registered a day before. The maximum also went down to 31.6°C from Sunday’s maximum of 35.2°C, according to the India Meteorological Department (IMD).
“High wind speed has affected the temperature and brought it down slightly. These winds are mostly coming from the northwest direction and will continue on Tuesday too. The average wind speed on Monday was 45 kmph,” said Kuldeep Srivastava, a scientist at IMD.
The average wind speed on
Monday was 45 kmph. Cloudy sky will mostly prevail throughout the week, and gusty winds with a speed of 30-40 kmph is likely to prevail till Tuesday, IMD predicted. While March mostly saw moderate days, AQI deteriorated to 189 (moderate) on the last day of the month.
According to the Air Quality Early Warning System for Delhi (AQEWS), AQI is expected to stay in the moderate category for the next few days. “The air quality is likely to be in the moderate category from April 2 to April 4. The outlook for the subsequent six days is that the air quality is likely to be in moderate category,” the AQEWS bulletin said on Monday.
Air pollution experts said that the sudden spike in AQI on Sunday and the subsequent decline on Monday can be attributed to wind conditions. “In metropolitan cities like Delhi, certain factors like vehicular pollution constantly contribute to air pollution. However, depending on the speed of surface winds, the air quality can improve,” said Avinash Chanchal from Greenpeace, India.