Delhi’s air quality improves, to become better over the weekend: IMD

There is a possibility of light rain in some parts of Delhi on January 9, after which the wind speeds is likely to reach around 25kmph

Delhi’s air quality improved slightly on Friday morning, will with the hourly average air quality index (AQI) at 7am reaching 223, in the “poor” zone.

A morning walker near India Gate on a winter morning at Rajpath in New Delhi. (Biplov Bhuyan/HT PHOTO)

Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) recorded an AQI of 255 in Delhi, in the ”poor” zone on Thursday. On Wednesday, the AQI was 226, also in the “poor” zone. On a scale of 0 to 500, a reading between 200 and 300 is considered poor.

Scientists said from Saturday, the wind speed is likely to pick up significantly, which will improve the air quality.

“There is a possibility of light rain in some parts of Delhi on January 9, after which the wind speeds is likely to reach around 25kmph. The AQI will improve over the weekend,” said VK Soni, head of India Meteorological Department (IMD)’s environment monitoring and research centre.

Union ministry of earth science’s air quality monitoring centre, System of Air Quality and Weather Forecasting and Research (Safar), also said the ventilation condition is expected to improve marginally in the next two days.

“The AQI is likely to marginally improve and be in the ‘poor’ or ‘moderate’ range on January 9 and January 10. No sudden deterioration of AQI is expected in the next few days,” the Safar forecast read.