Delhi’s air quality in ‘very poor’ zone

The weather in Delhi is likely to remain overcast with shallow fog in the mornings until Saturday. Very light rain or drizzle is expected on Sunday

Delhi’s air quality was in the “very poor” category on Thursday morning as the weather in the city was expected to be overcast with the mercury likely to settle at 6 degrees Celsius compared to 4.4 degrees Celsius a day earlier. The maximum temperature was expected to be 24 degrees Celsius with shallow fog in the morning.

A woman crosses railway tracks on a smoggy morning in New Delhi this week. (HT photo)

The weather in Delhi is likely to remain overcast with shallow fog in the mornings until Saturday. Very light rain or drizzle is expected on Sunday. Cold wave conditions have abated under the impact of active western disturbances from Wednesday. The weather department declares a cold day if the maximum temperature is 4.5 degrees below normal or if it is either 4.5 degrees below normal or below 4 degrees Celsius.

The Air Quality Index (AQI) at 7.30am stood at 387. On Thursday, the average 24-hour AQI was 407 is in the “severe” category. PM2.5 was the dominant pollutant in Delhi’s air.

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”, and 401 and 500 “severe”.

An improvement in the air quality is expected from Friday. On Tuesday, the System of Air Quality and Weather Forecasting and Research said the AQI indicates very poor air quality due to low mixing and ventilation throughout the day. “Moderate wind speed and low boundary layer height, which is typical of (the) winter season, is going to keep air quality very poor for next two days. An improvement is expected due to western disturbance from 24th December.”