Delhi’s AQI remains ‘severe’, minimum temperature recorded at 5°C

Delhi’s AQI touched ‘severe’ late on Monday night and has stayed in this category since, owing to a combination of calm winds and fog

Delhi’s air quality remained ‘severe’ on Thursday with air quality index (AQI) recorded at 9am was 450 which was a further deterioration from Wednesday’s 4pm reading of 445 (severe), even as moderate fog was seen across the city.

Forecasts show winds are unlikely to pick up immediately, likely keeping Delhi in a grip of high pollution. (ANI photo)

Delhi’s AQI touched ‘severe’ late on Monday night and has stayed in this category since, owing to a combination of calm winds and fog. This also led to stages 3 and 4 of the Graded Response Action Plan (GRAP) being invoked in NCR from Monday onwards, banning construction and demolition activities completely and imposing a host of vehicular restrictions in the region including banning BS3 petrol and BS4 diesel four wheelers.

The India Meteorological Department (IMD) said Delhi’s minimum temperature stood at 5°C on Thursday, which was three degrees below normal. It was 7.6°C a day earlier.

Met officials said moderate fog was seen in the city, with the lowest visibility of 250 metres recorded at Safdarjung at around 7:30am. At Palam, it was 500 metres. In comparison, the lowest visibility on Wednesday was 100 metres at Safdarjung while 300 metres at Palam.

The sudden onset to this spell of pollution has ended a relatively clean streak that Delhi has seen this December – with an average AQI of 238, the first two weeks of the month were the cleanest since 2015, according to official data.

To be sure, the sudden deterioration is not particularly abnormal – the second half of December typically sees a sharp deterioration.

Data from December 2022 showed an average AQI of 348, with three “severe” days, all in the latter half of the month. The highest AQI recorded last December was 450 on December 23.

Forecasts show winds are unlikely to pick up immediately, likely keeping Delhi in a grip of high pollution.

“Winds are remaining slow and become calm at night. Further, fog is also making dispersion of pollutants difficult.” said Mahesh Palawat, vice president, Skymet.