Noida’s air quality slips towards New Year’s Eve

Noida: Noida and adjoining areas’ air quality began to slip on Wednesday.

Noida: Noida and adjoining areas’ air quality began to slip on Wednesday.

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Noida, Ghaziabad and Greater Noida had “very poor” on the day, which was “poor” for the last two days. According to the weather analysts, the drop in temperature, a slight rise in humidity and calm winds made matters worse for the three cities.

Experts and pollution monitoring agencies said that the air quality is likely to worsen on New Year’s Eve.

“Wind speed has dropped due to which the dispersal of the pollutants has become difficult. Also a number of places across national capital region (NCR) are experiencing cold waves with minimum temperatures around 3 degrees Celsius and maximum temperatures about four degrees below the season’s average, this makes ventilation even more difficult as the colder winds trap the pollutants. The condition will persist till January 2 and pollution levels may stay high,” said Mahesh Palawat, director, private weather forecasting centre, Skymet.

According to Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB), the air quality index (AQI) of Noida, on a scale of 0 to 500 on Wednesday was 302 or ‘very-poor’ against 258 a day earlier.

The AQI of Greater Noida was 315 against 272 a day earlier. The AQI of Ghaziabad was 310 against 283 a day earlier.

The AQI between 101 to 200 is considered ‘moderate’, between 201 and 300 is ‘poor’, between 301 and 400 is considered ‘very-poor’ and above 400 is considered ‘severe’.

According to the System of air quality and weather forecasting and research (SAFAR), the AQI is likely to deteriorate further.

“Due to the cold dry north-westerly winds and a fall in minimum temperature is likely in the region and a gradual decrease of surface wind speed is forecasted. Very calm surface winds along with low boundary layer height will lead to extremely low ventilation conditions on 31st and 1st January. AQI is forecasted to deteriorate to the high-end of the Very Poor category by 31st Dec. AQI may touch the Severe category for a shorter period on New Year’s Eve. Very Poor to Severe AQI is forecasted on 1st January. Calm wind low ventilated condition is likely to extend for the first few days of New Year,” said SAFAR on Wednesday.