City air improves marginally thanks to westerly winds

The air quality in the city marginally improved on Thursday, recording 286 (poor) on the Central Pollution Control Board’s (CPCB) daily air quality index (AQI) bulletin.

The air quality in the city marginally improved on Thursday, recording 286 (poor) on the Central Pollution Control Board’s (CPCB) daily air quality index (AQI) bulletin. This was down from Wednesday’s reading of 299, which was just short of “very poor” air quality. While wind speeds throughout the day remained slow, the direction of the wind was favourable in preventing pollutants from accumulating. The reduction in farm fires in Punjab and Haryana, too, have helped keeping pollution levels down, experts said.

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“On Thursday afternoon, we were receiving westerly winds with speeds of about 8kmph. There had been some accumulation of pollutants during the night and morning. However, they were dispersed again by the afternoon. The number of farm fires has also reduced considerably this past week and the amount of smog being blown into Delhi-NCR from the west has reduced, helping the situation,” said Sachin Panwar, a city-based independent air quality scientist.

Officials also attributed the improvement in air quality to a reduction in farm fires. “There have been hardly any images of stubble burning detected over the past day. The impact is quite noticeable. In fact, across other cities, the improvement in air quality has been even clearer as they are more impacted by the wind direction,” said Kuldeep Singh, regional officer, HSPCB, pointing out that air quality in neighbouring Delhi improved from 413 (severe) to 302 (very poor) on Thursday.

According to the early air quality warning system for Delhi-NCR, “The air quality is likely to remain in the poor category on 27.11.2020... The predominant surface wind is likely to be coming from Northwest direction of Delhi with wind speed up to 08-14 kmph, mainly clear sky and mist in the morning.”

The minimum temperature of Gurugram settled at 11 degrees Celsius on Thursday — same as the previous day. The city recorded a maximum temperature of 24 degrees Celsius on Thursday, two degrees higher than Wednesday’s reading. As per the IMD’s weekly forecast, the maximum temperature will hover around 24 degrees Celsius while the minimum temperature is expected to stay at 13 degrees on Friday. As per the weekly forecast, clear skies will prevail on Friday.