Foggy morning in Delhi as temperature drops, air quality begins to decline again
Levels of particulate matter — PM10 and PM 2.5 — spiked marginally in the morning due to low wind speed and high moisture levels. Pollution levels could deteriorate till Friday.
Delhi woke up to a colder morning on Wednesday with the minimum temperature dropping to 12 degree Celsius and visibility going down due to fog. The Capital’s air quality also fell from Tuesday’s improved levels and is expected to decline further till Friday.
Officials from the Indian metrological department (IMD) said visibility in the city was below 300 metres on Wednesday morning. Visibility below 1000 metres qualifies as fog. The IMD has predicted dense foggy conditions for Wednesday.
Levels of particulate matter — PM10 and PM 2.5 — spiked marginally on Wednesday morning due to low wind speed and high moisture levels.
The air quality index (AQI) was recorded at 253, which was some points above Tuesday’s average AQI of 219. When AQI is between 201-300 is considered to be in “poor” category while it is considered to be in “very poor” category when in the range of 301-400.
The average AQI was 361 on Monday when the city received rains in some parts. The average AQI was 377 on Sunday.
Officials from the Indian metrological department (IMD) said, “Wednesday’s minimum temperature was 12 degree Celsius, which is 1.8 points lower than yesterday’s 13.8 degree Celsius. Today’s maximum temperature is predicted to be around 21 degree Celsius.”
Officials have predicted that the pollution levels could spike marginally once again from Wednesday and continue to deteriorate till Friday because of low winds and high moisture levels.