City’s AQI drops to ‘very poor’ category

The Air Quality Index (AQI) of Mumbai dropped to the ‘very poor’ category on Friday evening. The System of Air Quality Forecasting and Research (SAFAR) recorded an overall AQI of the city at 306, which falls in the ‘very poor’ category

Mumbai: The Air Quality Index (AQI) of Mumbai dropped to the ‘very poor’ category on Friday evening.

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The System of Air Quality Forecasting and Research (SAFAR) recorded an overall AQI of the city at 306, which falls in the ‘very poor’ category.

The AQI of Bandra Kurla Complex (BKC) was the worst among all in the very poor category. It was close to falling into a ‘severe’ category with an AQI of 393.

Mazgaon recorded an AQI of 348, while Chembur and Andheri recorded 344 and 324, respectively. The AQI of Malad was at 260, Bandhup at 208 and Colaba at 201. All of them were in the ‘very poor’ category, whereas only two stations were in the moderate category— Worli at 166 and Borivali at 125.

Meanwhile, after being the hottest city in the country last week, Mumbai recorded a dip in temperatures in the last few days. Colaba recorded a minimum temperature of 21.2 degrees Celsius, while Santacruz reported 19.3 degrees Celsius.

“The temperatures will be low over the Christmas weekend due to the cold northerly and north easterly winds blowing towards the city. The city will have pleasantly cold weather between December 24 and 26. Last Sunday, Mumbai was the hottest city in the country. That was an effect of the easterlies and south easterlies. The wind direction is set to change again in the coming week, which will cause the temperatures in the city to rise again,” Sushma Nair, scientist, Indian Meteorology Department, Mumbai, said.”

The daily 4pm bulletin by the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) also recorded ‘Poor’ AQI level of 238. The discrepancy is caused as the SAFAR has monitoring stations at nine locations in the city, while CPCB calculates the overall AQI based on 18 monitoring including those in the same locations as SAFAR with an average of past 24 hours.