Delhi sees fourth straight day of moderate air quality

IMD has forecast the minimum temperature to stay between 11-13 °C on Sunday and Monday and then increase to 17-19 °C by next Thursday

Delhi on Saturday recorded its fourth consecutive day of ”moderate” air quality. The 24-hour average air quality index (AQI) of Delhi was 155 (moderate) at 4pm, according to the Central Pollution Control Board’s (CPCB) daily national buletin, a steady improvement from Wednesday’s 180 AQI (moderate), which had improved to 160 on Thursday and 158 on Friday.

A clear sky over the footover bridge near Burari in New Delhi on Saturday. (RAJ K RAJ /HT PHOTO)

Before this a three-day streak of moderate air quality was recorded from February 13-15 .

CPCB classifies AQI between 0 and 50 as “good”, 51 and 100 as “satisfactory”, 101 and 200 as “moderate”, 201 and 300 as “poor”, 301 and 400 as “very poor”, and more than 400 as “severe”.

Forecasts by the Air Quality Early Warning System (AQEWS) for Delhi suggest that AQI will stay in the moderate category for the next few days.

“The air quality is likely to be in the moderate category from Sunday to Tuesday. The outlook for the subsequent six days is that the air quality is likely to be in the moderate to poor category,” the AQEWS bulletin said on Saturday evening.

The city’s minimum temperature changed marginally on Saturday and was recorded at 12.5 degrees Celsius (°C), 0.7 °C above the normal and a 0.2 °C increase from the day before. The maximum for the day was recorded at 24.7 °C, 0.8°C below the normal. This was 1.9 °C lower than 26.6 °C recorded on Friday.

An official from the India Meteorological department (IMD) said, “Mostly clear skies persisted on Saturday. Some smog or mist might be observed in the early hours of Sunday. A fresh western disturbance is also likely to affect northwest India from the night of February 24.”

IMD has forecast very light to light rain on February 27 and 28 accompanied by strong surface winds of 20-30 kmph.

The temperature is expected to decrease over the next two days and will increase afterwards. IMD has forecast the minimum temperature to stay between 11-13 °C on Sunday and Monday and then increase to 17-19 °C by next Thursday. The maximum is likely to oscillate between 24-28 °C over the next couple of days and then touch 29-31 °C by the end of next week.