Gurugram’s air worsens slightly; still better than rest of NCR

For the second day running, Gurugram’s air was the cleanest in the national capital region (NCR) on Thursday clocking in a “poor” score of 293 on the central pollution

For the second day running, Gurugram’s air was the cleanest in the national capital region (NCR) on Thursday clocking in a “poor” score of 293 on the central pollution control board’s (CPCB’s) air quality index (AQI) bulletin.

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Meanwhile, neighbouring Delhi, Noida and Ghaziabad recording “very poor” air.

Thursday’s AQI reading was, however, marginally worse from the previous day’s 288, also in the “poor” category that falls under the range 201 and 300 and can cause breathing discomfort to people on prolonged exposure.

Experts, however, said that the air quality was predicted to deteriorate from Diwali night on November 14 and attributed the current improvement to favourable wind - blowing easterly rather than north-westerly and thus reducing the effect of stubble burning in neighbouring areas.

“The air quality is expected to stay in a similar range during the day on Friday but will start deteriorating towards the night. Due to emissions and low wind speed on Diwali night, air quality will deteriorate further,” said Sachin Panwar, a city-based independent air quality scientist.

Kuldeep Srivastava, a scientist at Indian Meteorological Department (IMD) and the head of Regional Weather Forecasting Centre, also maintained that the improvement in the air quality over the past two days would not last for long. “The air quality will deteriorate during the Diwali weekend due to a change in the wind direction,” said Srivastava said.

An expected Western Disturbance around November 16 may bring about rain in certain areas that could improve air quality and reduce temperature by at least 4°C, he added.

The level of ultrafine particulate matter, PM2.5 (diameter of 2.5 microns or less), the city’s primary pollutant, was 241.12 micrograms per cubic metre (µg/m³) on Thursday, as per the CPCB’s air quality monitor at Vikas Sadan in Sector 11.

Gurugram’s minimum temperature on Thursday was 14.6°C and maximum was 28.3°C, according to the India Meteorological Department’s (IMD) Palam observatory in Delhi, which, according to the Met department officials, gave a fairly accurate reading of city’s weather.

Both maximum and minimum temperatures are expected to hover in a similar range on Thursday. As per the weekly IMD forecast, fog and mist are expected to prevail in the morning hours followed by a clear sky during the day.