Mumbai breathes ‘good’ air after nearly a week

The new week began with the city recording ‘good’ air quality, after a week-long spell of ‘moderate’ pollution levels

The new week began with the city recording ‘good’ air quality, after a week-long spell of ‘moderate’ pollution levels.

On Monday, Mumbai recorded an air quality index (AQI) – a pollutant measuring indicator – at 91. The index is expected to increase to 95 on Tuesday. AQI levels between 0-100 fall under the ‘good’ category, while a reading between 100-200 is ‘moderate’.

According to the System of Air Quality Weather Forecasting and Research (SAFAR), which monitors and predicts air quality at 10 locations in Mumbai, there have been fluctuations in pollution levels, with the AQI swinging between the ‘good’ and ‘moderate’ category throughout April.

“Currently, the wind speed is moderate and the sea breeze allowed pollutants to disperse from Mumbai’s air faster on Monday,” said Gufran Beig, director, SAFAR. “Depending upon the rise and fall in temperatures, air quality has been fluctuating. If temperatures do not fall below normal levels, we expect the AQI to continue on the border line of ‘good’ and ‘moderate’ levels for the rest of the month.”

Eight out of 10 locations in Mumbai recorded ‘good’ air quality on Monday, with Andheri observing the cleanest air at an AQI level of 50. The most polluted locations, however, were Mazgaon and Bandra-Kurla Complex, both recording AQI levels at 218 and 204 respectively, falling under the ‘poor’ category.

Meanwhile, temperatures both at the suburbs and south Mumbai on Monday were close to normal levels. While the Colaba weather station recorded a day temperature of 33.4 degrees Celsius, 0.4 degree Celsius above normal, Santacruz recording a day temperature of 34 degrees Celsius, 0.9 degrees above normal. Keeping with the trend seen over the past couple of days, night temperatures remained less than a degree Celsius above normal.

Weathermen predicted a partly cloudy sky with day and night temperatures expected at 33 degrees Celsius and 26 degrees Celsius respectively.