Delhi’s AQI deteriorates to ‘very poor’; minimum temperature recorded at 6.4°C

The AQI was recorded at 335 (very poor) at 10 am and 342 (very poor) at 11am on Wednesday, as compared to the 24-hour average AQI of 276 (poor) recorded at 4pm on Tuesday

Delhi’s air quality deteriorated to ‘very poor’ category on Wednesday due to the influence of western disturbance (WD).

The air quality is likely to be in very poor category from Wednesday to Friday. (ANI file photo)

The air quality index (AQI) was recorded at 335 (very poor) at 10am and 347 (very poor) at 12pm on Wednesday, as compared to the 24-hour average AQI of 276 (poor) recorded at 4pm on Tuesday.

The Air Quality Early Warning System (AQEWS) for Delhi has forecast the AQI to stay in the very poor category for the next few days.

“The air quality is likely to be in very poor category from Wednesday to Friday. The outlook for subsequent six days is that the air quality is likely to be in very poor to poor category,” the AQEWS bulletin said.

The India Meteorological department (IMD) said that wind speed in the early hours of the day stayed between 10-15 kmph.

“Partly cloudy skies were observed in the morning and are expected to persist throughout the day. Wind speed is likely to go down in the afternoon and evening,” said a Met official.

According to IMD, Palam recorded a visibility of 1100m between 7:30am and 10am.

The minimum, meanwhile, increased marginally with Safdarjung, representative of Delhi’s weather, recording a minimum temperature of 6.4°C, two degrees below normal. This was only 0.8°C higher than the minimum recorded a day before.

Other weather stations, like Palam, recorded a higher minimum change. Palam recorded 8.9°C minimum, 2.2°C more than the previous day. The maximum of the day is expected to be between 24-26°C.

“As the western disturbance influences the region for the next few days, wind speed will slow down further and temperature is likely to go up,” added an IMD official.