City’s air quality continues to remain ‘moderate’, many areas record ‘poor’ AQI

Mumbai's air quality remained 'moderate' at 190 on Saturday, with Govandi being the only area marked as 'very poor' due to PM10 particles. Other areas also had poor air quality. The city's temperature was higher than normal, with the forecast indicating similar temperatures in the coming days.

Mumbai: The city’s air quality continued to remain in the ‘moderate’ category at 190 on Saturday. Several areas registered poor air quality with one usual suspect of Govandi where the air continues to remain ‘very poor’ AQI. The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation’s (BMC) station in Govandi was the only one marked as red, very poor at 359 due to PM10 particles. PM2.5 particles were also in the very poor category at 317.

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PM10 includes particles less than 10 µm in diameter, PM2.5 those less than 2.5 µm. The toxicity of suspended particles is mainly due to particles with a diameter of less than 10µm.

This was closely followed by Sewri at 299, Malad West at 280, Ghatkopar at 261 and Kandivali at 247. Other stations with their air in poor quality were the Central Pollution Control Board in Kurla at 220, BKC at 228, Navy Nagar Colaba at 217, and Chembur at 201. All of the five BMC stations were in the poor category or worse, with Byculla being the least polluted at 230.

As per the System of Air Quality and Weather Forecasting and Research (SAFAR), three stations were in the orange: Navi Mumbai at 215, Colaba at 213, and Malad at 205. A mix of PM2.5 and PM10 were the pollutant particles to blame, the majority however being PM2.5.

This trend is expected with the setting of winter in the city, even with the temperatures higher than expected. Santacruz touched a minimum temperature of 19.6 degrees Celsius on Saturday, two degrees above normal.

The maximum temperature was 34.7 degrees Celsius, a whole three degrees above normal. Colaba touched highs of 31.6 degrees Celsius, normal, and a low of 22.2 degrees Celsius, two degrees above the normal. The forecast for the coming days foresees the temperature in the same range.