Delhi air quality dips again, AQI in ‘very poor’ zone as cold wave deepens

The city also woke up to a chilly morning with minimum temperature at 6.4°C, 3.1°C below normal. It was 5.7°C on Monday.

Delhi’s air quality stayed in ‘very poor’ category on Wednesday morning with a rolling average AQI of 376 at 8am, up from 372 the previous day, as calm winds followed a sharp rise on Tuesday. At 14 of 40 monitoring stations, AQI exceeded 400 in the ‘severe’ zone, peaking at 436 in Nehru Nagar.

A thick layer of smog engulfs the skyline in Delhi NCR as the AQI slips to the ‘very poor’ category. (Sunil Ghosh/ HT Photo)

The city also woke up to a chilly morning with minimum temperature at 6.4°C, 3.1°C below normal. It was 5.7°C on Monday, five degrees below normal, as December began on an unusually cold note.

The deterioration followed a brief respite on Sunday, when AQI fell below 300, ending a 24-day streak from November 6 to 29 when levels stayed at or above 300 daily.

Forecasts indicate AQI unlikely to reach ‘severe’ soon, with winds expected to strengthen Wednesday daytime.

“Delhi’s air quality is likely to be in the ‘very poor’ category from December 3 till December 5. The outlook for the subsequent six days from December 6 onwards also shows AQI staying in ‘very poor’,” said the Centre’s Air Quality Early Warning System (EWS) for Delhi in its daily bulletin.

The CPCB classifies AQI as ‘good’ (50 or lower), ‘satisfactory’ (51-100), ‘moderate’ (101-200), ‘poor’ (201-300), ‘very poor’ (301-400), and ‘severe’ (above 400).