Mumbai breathes its cleanest air so far this year on Monday

An overall air quality index (AQI) — a pollutant measuring indicator — of 156 was measured, which falls in the moderate category. This beats the lowest AQI recorded in the year before this at 162 on January 16.

The city breathed its cleanest air this year on Monday as winds blowing from the sea cleared up pollutants in the air. An overall air quality index (AQI) — a pollutant measuring indicator — of 156 was measured, which falls in the moderate category. This beats the lowest AQI recorded in the year before this at 162 on January 16.

An overall AQI of 156 was measured, which falls in the moderate category, in Mumbai on Monday. (HT FILE PHOTO)

Air quality had remained in poor to very poor category since the beginning of January owing to low temperatures. On January 8, AQI was the worst at 317 (very poor). With the onset of westerly winds, the air had cleared up by the weekend, but became poor on Sunday with an AQI of 252.

“Air mass has formed in the ocean and wind blowing from the sea is cleaner than the air from land mass. Winds blowing from the north and west have cleared the air of pollutants. The air quality is expected to remain in moderate to poor category,” said a spokesperson for System of Air Quality Weather Forecasting and Research (SAFAR).

AQI was calculated by SAFAR as the average of indices recorded at 10 locations in the city and suburbs. Of the 10 locations measured, only Navi Mumbai recorded very poor air with AQI at 351.

SAFAR categorises AQI levels for PM2.5 in the 0-50 range as good; 51-100 as satisfactory; 101-200 as moderate; 201-300 as poor; 301-400 as very poor and above 400 as severe.

Meanwhile, temperatures increased in the city. Santacruz weather station, representative of Mumbai and suburbs, recorded a minimum temperature of 20.2 degrees Celsius, 3 degrees above normal. Colaba observatory, representative of south Mumbai, recorded minimum temperature at 21.8 degrees Celsius, 3 degrees above normal.

Santacruz reported a maximum temperature of 31.6 degrees Celsius, which was 1 degree above normal while it was 29.4 degrees Celsius in Colaba which is 1 degree below normal.

“The sky was somewhat cloudy on Monday. Parts of Maharashtra can expect a winter spell towards the middle of the week,” said KS Hosalikar, deputy director general of western region, India Meteorological Department.