Delhi’s air quality improves but remains in ‘poor’ category with AQI at 300

The CPCB classifies an AQI between 0-50 as ‘good’, between 51 and 100 as ‘satisfactory’, between 101 and 200 as ‘moderate’, between 201 and 300 as ‘poor’, between 301 and 400 as ‘very poor’ and over 400 as ‘severe

The air pollution level in Delhi on Sunday morning returned to the ‘poor’ category with a reading of 300 at 7am from Saturday’s reading of 303 (very poor) at 4pm, according to the hourly air quality index (AQI) of the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB).

Delhi is expected to see shallow fog on Monday morning as the winter settles in (HT Photo)

The CPCB classifies an AQI between 0-50 as ‘good’, between 51 and 100 as ‘satisfactory’, between 101 and 200 as ‘moderate’, between 201 and 300 as ‘poor’, between 301 and 400 as ‘very poor’ and over 400 as ‘severe’.

While local wind speed remains strong, facilitating the dispersal of local emissions, agencies say the impact of cold northwesterly winds is not only leading to stubble emissions reaching the capital, but also leading to a drop in mercury.

Temperatures continued to remain low in the capital city and surrounding areas, with Delhi recording a minimum temperature of 12.6 degrees Celsius on Sunday morning with 28.3 degrees Celcius being the maximum. So far, this is Delhi’s lowest minimum temperature this winter season at this time of the year. Parts of the capital also recorded shallow fog this morning.

Forecasts from the Early Warning System for Delhi (EWS) -- used by the Commission for Air Quality Management (CAQM) to take pre-emptive action under the Graded Response Action Plan (Grap) -- show Delhi’s AQI is likely to remain in the ‘poor’ category today but will return to ‘very poor’ by Monday.

“The AQI is likely to remain in the ‘poor’ category on Sunday, but it will deteriorate and reach the ‘very poor’ category on Monday and remain so on Tuesday. The outlook for the subsequent six days shows AQI will largely remain in poor to very poor,” EWS said.

Meanwhile, Delhi is expected to see shallow fog on Monday morning as the winter settles in, with isolated parts of the capital receiving a drizzle, as per the Indian Meteorological Department (IMD).