Cloud cover gives respite from heat as fast winds clean up air

The city witnessed a cloudy day as gusty winds cleaned the air and provided some relief from the afternoon heat on Monday, even as rains give the city a miss

The city witnessed a cloudy day as gusty winds cleaned the air and provided some relief from the afternoon heat on Monday, even as rains give the city a miss.

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Officials of the India Meteorological Department (IMD), who predicted light rain for Monday and Tuesday, said that while clouds had prevailed on Monday, rain-heavy clouds were missing. “We can see a cloud cover, but it didn’t rain in most parts of the NCR. In Delhi and Gurugram, there was hardly any rain. The prediction of light rain for Tuesday continues,” said an IMD official, adding the impact of the western disturbance is likely to subside by Wednesday.

The minimum temperature on Monday was 21.2 degrees Celsius, while the maximum temperature was 34. 7 degrees Celsius. As per the IMD’s weekly forecast, the maximum and minimum temperatures are expected to hover around 32 degrees and 21 degrees Celsius, respectively, on Tuesday. A cloudy sky with one or two spells of rains and thundershower has been predicted on both Tuesday and Wednesday.

The city’s air quality entered the moderate zone of the Central Pollution Control Board’s (CPCB) air quality index (AQI) with a reading of 170 on the daily bulletin, a significant improvement from Sunday’s AQI of 245 that was in the poor category.

Sachin Panwar, a city-based air quality scientist, said that the strong winds with speeds of 30-40kmph on Monday aided the dispersal of pollutants. “Besides the wind speed, there is a rise in average temperature due to which hot air is rising. Most of the vicinities are clear, so pollutants are getting dispersed faster,” said Panwar.

The level of ultrafine particulate matter having a diameter of 2.5 microns or less (PM 2.5), the city’s primary pollutant, was 136.72 micrograms per cubic metre (µg/m³) on Monday, as per the CPCB’s air quality monitor at Vikas Sadan in Sector 11. At the official monitor in Sector 51, the PM 2.5 concentration stood at 242.41µg/m3.

According to the early air quality warning system for Delhi-NCR, the air quality in the region is likely to remain in the moderate to the satisfactory category on Wednesday and Thursday. Subsequently, the air quality is likely to improve and remain in the moderate to poor category over the next five days. It also stated that the transported dust concentration had subsided significantly and no significant long-range transport of dust is likely for the next three days.