Air quality to deteriorate in Pune in next 24 hours
‘Poor’ air quality in Shivajinagar and Hadapsar while the air quality is expected to fall to ‘worse’ in Bhosari
According to SAFAR-IITM’s recently introduced ‘Air Quality Early Warning and Decision Support System’, the air quality in some areas is expected to deteriorate in the next 24 hours. The system has forecasted ‘poor’ air quality in Shivajinagar and Hadapsar while the air quality is expected to fall to ‘worse’ in Bhosari. Currently, all three locations indicate ‘moderate’ air quality with an AQI index over 100. Changing weather conditions are likely to affect the air quality in the city, experts said.
‘Air Quality Early Warning and Decision Support System’ is a joint project of C-DAC and the Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorology (IITM) under the National Supercomputing Mission by the ministry of Earth Science. It is an upgraded version of the previous SAFAR project, and provides air quality information for seven cities namely Pune, Mumbai, Ahmedabad, Kolkata, Hyderabad, Bengaluru and Delhi. Moreover, the system also includes air quality data from six stations in Pune that are being monitored by the Maharashtra Pollution Control Board (MPCB).
As per the ‘Air Quality Early Warning and Decision Support System’, Pune on Thursday recorded an AQI of 113 with moderate air quality.
The highest AQI in the Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) limit was recorded in Hadapsar as 137 whereas the highest AQI in Pimpri-Chinchwad was recorded in Thergaon as 224.
In other areas of Pune and Pimpri-Chinchwad, the AQI was recorded between 100 and 137. The system also forecasted that in some areas, the air quality is likely to deteriorate to poor or worse levels. While in other areas, it is expected to remain at good to moderate levels.
Ravindra Andhale, regional officer, MPCB, said, “Meteorology plays an important role in air pollution. The wind flow can function either to drive away the dust in the atmosphere or to spread more dust in the atmosphere. Moreover, cold wave-like conditions highly contribute to the air pollution in the atmosphere.”
The India Meteorological Department (IMD) has already predicted a cold wave-like condition in the northern part of the country. The department has also forecasted that the northern cool winds will bring down the minimum temperature in north-central Maharashtra, including Pune.
Similarly, the city is also experiencing a drop in minimum temperatures. In the last 24 hours, the minimum temperature in the city has already dropped by three degrees Celsius.
On Thursday, the IMD recorded the minimum temperature at Shivajinagar as 10.2 degrees Celsius, which was 13.4 degrees Celsius on Wednesday, January 31.
The state as well as the city will continue to experience a drop in minimum temperature till February 4, as another western disturbance is approaching the country on February 3, said Anupam Kashyapi, head of the weather forecasting division, IMD Pune.