Dense fog reduces air quality, visibility in Gurugram
Dense fog descended on the city on Monday morning, reducing visibility and throwing normal life into a disarray
Dense fog descended on the city on Monday morning, reducing visibility and throwing normal life into a disarray. Traffic moved slowly on city roads during the morning hours, particularly on expressways, as visibility remained poor till about 11.30am. Although the fog cleared a bit post noon, it returned after 5pm.
The air quality in the city also deteriorated with the air quality index (AQI) climbing to 397 or the upper end of the “very poor” category. The air quality monitors of the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) showed an AQI reading of 406 (severe category) around 6.30pm as the fog kept pollutants trapped in the atmosphere.
The 24-hour average AQI in the city was last in the severe category on November 4 after which several restrictions were imposed by the Commission for Air Quality Monitoring under the graded response action plan (Grap). According to the CPCB, the air quality is likely to remain in the “very poor” category for the next seven to eight days due to moderate wind speed and low temperatures.
The India Meteorological Department (IMD) on Monday said dense to very dense fog will continue in most parts of Haryana (including Gurugram) and Punjab for the next 24 hours after which the weather will improve. “Dense fog is likely to prevail in most parts of Haryana and Punjab during the next few days.After that, due to approaching western disturbances, the temperature is expected to rise. Visibility in Gurugram and many parts of south Haryana was very low in the morning and is likely to remain so during the morning and night hours and people should drive carefully,” said Manmohan Singh, director, IMD Chandigarh.
The minimum temperature in Gurugram on Monday was 3.9 degrees Celsius and the maximum was 16 degrees Celsius, the IMD said.
Singh also said owing to light winds and high moisture content near the surface over Indo-Gangetic plains, dense to very dense fog is likely to continue over north-west India, including south Haryana, for the next few days.
The IMD in Delhi on Monday said at 5.30am the visibility at Delhi’s Safdarjung was 25 metres and 50 metres at Palam.
It further said owing to the approaching fresh western disturbance from Tuesday night, minimum temperatures are very likely to rise by two to four degrees from Wednesday. It also said cold wave conditions are expected to continue in isolated areas of south Haryana, north Rajasthan, Chandigarh and Delhi.
The IMD also said minimum temperature has increased by one to three degrees in most parts of north-west India.
In Haryana, the average minimum temperature rose by 1.9 degrees across the state, and the lowest minimum temperature was recorded at 2.1 degrees Celsius in Mahendergarh, the bulletin by IMD Chandigarh said.
System for air quality monitoring and weather forecasting (Safar), meanwhile, said due to moderate surface wind speed and low temperature over Delhi NCR, the air quality is likely to deteriorate for the next three days and will be “very poor” or enter the “severe” category due to moderate dispersion of pollutants. “Mixing layer height is likely to be less than 1km and that causes weak ventilation of pollutants,” it said in its forecast.
The Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorology in its forecast on Monday said the air quality is likely to remain in the “very poor” category on Tuesday and the subsequent seven days .
