Delhi’s air quality remains in ‘poor’ category

The air quality is likely to be in the ‘poor’ category on Thursday and Friday and it will then be in the upper end of the ‘poor’ category on Saturday

Delhi’s air quality continued to remain in the “poor” category on Thursday morning with an AQI (air quality index) value of 252 on the Central Pollution Control Board’s (CPCB) city-wise AQI index at 8am.

On Wednesday, AQI was in the “poor” category with a reading of 243. (ANI photo)

On Wednesday, AQI was in the “poor” category with a reading of 243.

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 Early Warning System (EWS) for Delhi — a forecasting model under the ministry of earth sciences — had on Wednesday said AQI will likely remain “poor” till Saturday with no significant changes in meteorological conditions.

The air quality is likely to be in the ‘poor’ category on Thursday and Friday. It will then be in the upper end of the ‘poor’ category on Saturday.

“The outlook for the subsequent six days shows air quality will oscillate between ‘poor’ and ‘very poor’ categories,” EWS said.

Meanwhile, the national Capital’s maximum temperature on Thursday settled at 15.8°C— a degree below normal for this time of the year.

Delhi’s minimum and maximum temperatures stood at 16°C and 31.6°C on Wednesday.

According to the India Meteorological Department’s (IMD) weekly forecast, Delhi’s maximum temperature is expected to hover around 31°C on Thursday.

A jump in farm fires in northern states has been blamed among the reasons for the spike in pollution levels. The fires have started earlier than last year but the count is yet to spike significantly. They tend to rise significantly by the end of October and in the first week of November.