New Delhi wakes up to ‘poor’ air quality; partly cloudy sky predicted today

Data from the Central Pollution Control Board showed that the hourly AQI at 7am stood at 276, which was in the “poor” category. On Monday, the average 24-hour AQI was at the lower end of the “very poor” category at 311

New Delhi’s air quality was “poor” on Tuesday morning, while weathermen have predicted a party cloudy sky for the rest of the day.

New Delhi woke up to ‘poor’ air quality on Tuesday, with partly cloudy sky predicted for the rest of the day. (HT file photo)

Data from the Central Pollution Control Board showed that the hourly air quality index (AQI) at 7am stood at 276, which was in the “poor” category. On Monday, the average 24-hour AQI was at the lower end of the “very poor” category at 311.

The ministry of earth sciences’ air quality monitoring centre, System of Air Quality and Weather Forecasting and Research (SAFAR), said there was a significant improvement in the air quality since Monday due to fewer fires and strong winds blowing from the northwest direction, dispersing pollutants.

“These winds are likely to continue tomorrow, also leading to a further improvement in the air quality to ‘poor’ category, if there’s no increase in fire count. Local surface winds are relatively high today and tomorrow that increases dispersion. So, air quality is likely to improve to ‘poor’ or ‘lower end of very poor’ category for the next two days... The effective fire count is 909 and its percentage share in Delhi’s PM2.5 is low,” SAFAR said.

On the weather front, the minimum temperature on Tuesday is likely to be 11 degrees Celsius, while the mercury could go up to 26 degrees Celsius.

Monday’s minimum temperature was 11 degrees Celsius and the maximum temperature was 27 degrees Celsius.