Toxic air to persist till Friday

Air quality in the city remained in the ”very poor” category for the second consecutive day on Wednesday, with a reading of 324 on the Central Pollution Control

Air quality in the city remained in the ”very poor” category for the second consecutive day on Wednesday, with a reading of 324 on the Central Pollution Control Board’s (CPCB) air quality index (AQI) bulletin. Wednesday’s reading is a marginal deterioration from the previous day’s AQI reading of 311, also in the “very poor” category. Experts attributed the deterioration in air quality to meteorological conditions unfavourable for dispersal of pollutants.

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An AQI reading between 301 and 400 is categorised “very poor” and can cause breathing discomfort and respiratory illness to people on prolonged exposure, as per air quality experts. The level of ultrafine particulate matter having a diameter of 2.5 microns or less (PM 2.5), the city’s primary pollutant, was 292.88 micrograms per cubic metre (µg/m³)on Wednesday, as per the CPCB’s air quality monitor at Vikas Sadan in Sector 11.

According to the early air quality warning system for Delhi-NCR, the air quality is likely to improve marginally on Thursday and deteriorate on Friday, but remain in the “very poor” category throughout. As per the System for Air Quality and Weather Forecasting and Research (SAFAR), further deterioration in AQI is expected on Friday on account of poor ventilation conditions.

Kuldeep Srivastava, a scientist at Indian Meteorological Department (IMD) and the head of regional weather forecasting centre, said while stubble burning impact had depleted, the air quality was being affected due to slow wind speed. “The wind speed will further reduce from December 4 or 5 and the direction is likely to change to easterly, from the north-westerly at present. The change in direction is due to a western disturbance that will affect Jammu and Kashmir and Himachal Pradesh from the night of December 3, which will also have an impact on Delhi. Whenever there is a change in wind pattern, winds turn calm and trap pollutants,” said Srivastava.

Gurugram’s minimum temperature settled at 8.2 degrees Celsius on Wednesday, according to the India Meteorological Department’s (IMD) Palam observatory. The IMD’s automatic weather station (AWS) did not record the city’s minimum temperature on Wednesday. The city recorded a maximum temperature of 26.7 degrees Celsius. While the maximum temperature was two degrees below the normal, the minimum temperature was a degree below the normal temperature for this time of the year.

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 later during the day.