Noida experiences cleanest air since September 27

Noida: The city on Friday experienced the cleanest air in the last two months as the wind speed picked up, dispersing pollutants.

The air quality of Noida, which was “very poor” on Thursday and “severe” on Wednesday, touched the lower end of the “moderate” category as per the central pollution control board’s (CPCB) air quality index(AQI). While Noida, Ghaziabad and Greater Noida had earlier seen “moderate” air quality even earlier on November 17, the AQI for the three cities was the lowest since September 27.

According to the weather analysts, although the northwesterly winds, which flow from Punjab and Haryana and bring in large volume of pollutants, the number of farm fires in these states has reduced.

“The wind speed increased on Friday, reaching to almost 15-20 kmph in the afternoon, while it remained around 10 to 15 kmph for the rest of the day. Parts of Punjab, Haryana and Uttar Pradesh also saw patchy rains. While the instances of stubble burning have already reduced, the rains further washed away the pollutants, due to which the region experienced relatively cleaner air,” said Mahesh Palawat, director, private weather forecasting centre Skymet. He added that the wind speeds may drop slightly over the next two days.

According to the CPCB’s AQI, the city recorded a reading of 125 as against 301 a day earlier. The AQI of Greater Noida was 129 as against 296 a day earlier. The AQI of Ghaziabad was 166 as against 289 a day earlier.

As per the records, while the AQI of Noida, Ghaziabad and Greater Noida had been under the ‘moderate’ category on November 17 and throughout the first week of October, Friday’s air quality was the cleanest since September 27. The AQI on September 27 was 116 for Noida, 120 for Greater Noida and 140 for Ghaziabad.

The city also witnessed a drop in the level of particulate matter (PM) 2.5 in the air. For the past 24 hours, PM 2.5 was recorded at 64.98 micrograms per cubic metres against 170.20 micrograms a day earlier. The PM2.5 for Greater Noida was 63.87 micrograms against 164.01 micrograms a day earlier. The PM2.5 for Ghaziabad was 78.49 against 178.85 a day earlier.

According to the system of air quality and weather forecasting and research (SAFAR), the AQI is likely to deteriorate slightly within the moderate category. “The AQI is forecasted to stay in the ‘moderate’ to ‘poor’ category for the next two days. Surface winds are forecasted to decrease by November 30 and the air quality will hover between ‘poor’ to the lower end of the ‘very poor’ category,” stated SAFAR in a statement on Friday.