New Delhi: The air quality in several areas of Delhi improved slightly on Tuesday morning due to rain and favourable wind speed caused by a western disturbance affecting northwest India.
As at 6 am today, the AQI was recorded at 374 in Anand Vihar, 301 in Shadipur, 397 in Rohini, 355 in Sirifort, according to data by the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB).
Till 8 :30 pm on Monday, the Safdarjung Observatory, the national capital’s primary weather station, recorded 7.2 mm of rainfall. An official at the India Meteorological Department (IMD) said that due to the rain, the wind speed improved to 20 kilometres per hour, aiding the dispersion of pollutants, news agency PTI reported.
At 10 pm yesterday, Delhi’s AQI stood at 387, improving from 395 at 4 pm and 400 at 9 am.
The air quality is likely to improve further since more shower is predicted in Delhi and its surrounding areas today. “Light intensity rain/drizzle would continue to occur over and adjoining areas of NCR (Ballabhgarh) Sohana, Palwal, Nuh, Aurangabad, Hodal (Haryana) Bijnaur, Chandpur, Amroha, Moradabad, Sambhal, Billari, Chandausi, Jahangirabad, Anupshahar, Bahajoi, others during the next 2 hours,” the Regional Weather Forecasting Centre (RWFC) said on Tuesday.
Earlier on Monday, Delhi is covered in a thick layer of smog as the air quality remains in the ‘Severe’ category. Despite a drop in cases of stubble-burning in Punjab and Haryana, which is seen as a contributor to Delhi’s poor air quality, the AQI is still hovering in the ‘Severe’ category.
The 24-hour average AQI, recorded at 4 pm every day, was 395 on Sunday, 389 on Saturday, 415 on Friday, 390 on Thursday, 394 on Wednesday, 365 on Tuesday, 348 on Monday and 301 on November 19. An AQI between zero and 50 is considered ‘good’, 51 and 100 ‘satisfactory’, 101 and 200 ‘moderate’, 201 and 300 ‘poor’, 301 and 400 ‘very poor’, 401 and 450 ‘severe’ and above 450 ‘severe-plus’. Earlier in the day, a thick layer of smog blanketed Delhi, reducing visibility to just 600 metres at 8 am at the Safdarjung Observatory. The visibility was 800 metres at the Indira Gandhi International Airport.
The national capital has recorded 10 severe air quality days this November so far. The city recorded just three severe air quality days in November last year, while it experienced 12 such days in 2021, the maximum in the month since the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) began monitoring.
There were nine such days in November 2020, seven in 2019; five in 2018; seven in 2017; 10 in 2016, and six in 2015, according to CPCB.
IIT Kanpur, IIT Delhi and The Energy and Resources Institute (TERI) have formulated a real-time source apportionment and forecasting for advanced air pollution management in Delhi. The real-time index calculates the sources of air pollution to help understand the major contributors behind the national capital’s worsening air quality.
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