E-Paper
Rain and hail clean up Noida, Gzb air
Ghaziabad: Light to moderate rain across Delhi-NCR helped reduce pollution levels that had spiked to sever levels in some scities over the last two days. Certain
Ghaziabad: Light to moderate rain across Delhi-NCR helped reduce pollution levels that had spiked to sever levels in some scities over the last two days. Certain parts of Noida and Greater Noida also withnessed heavy rain and hail.
Residents of sectors 75, 76, 62, and Greater Noida West said their areas witnessed hailstorm for a short time around 9pm, coupled with heavy rain.
According to weather analysts and officials of the India Meteorological Department (IMD), Noida city may see more hail and rain on Friday afternoon as well.
The IMD scientists said the light rain and high wind speed helped lower pollution in Delhi-NCR. The Ghaziabad city, as per Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB), yet again emerged the most polluted city across the country on Thursday with pollution levels in the “severe” category.
All three cities of Ghaziabad, Greater Noida and Noida had “severe” pollution since December 10 and the air quality index on Thursday stood at 467, 423 and 434 for the three cities, respectively. The IMD officials said the rain in Delhi-NCR is likely to continue till Friday afternoon.
“The rain is due to a western disturbance. The wind speed Thursday was around 20kmph and it will stay between 15-20kmph till December 15. The better wind speed will help disperse pollutants and clean the air,” Kuldeep Srivastava, head of Regional Weather Forecasting Centre, New Delhi, said.
“As a result of the heavy snowfall in Jammu and Kashmir and Himachal Pradesh, the minimum and maximum temperatures ranged between 13 and 20 degrees Celsius on Thursday and are likely to remain between 8 degrees Celsius and 23 degrees Celsius on Friday. After December 13, the sky is likely to remain clear,” he said.
The official said the present western disturbance will pass over Delhi-NCR by December 13.
According to System of Air Quality and Weather Forecasting and Research (Safar), there will be increased moisture after the western disturbance and this will lead to foggy conditions from December 14.
“The AQI will improve rapidly and significantly by Thursday night and the impact will be seen by Friday morning,” the Safar forecast said.
