The air quality of Delhi and Gurugram was in the “very poor” category and Noida’s was “severe” on Friday, according to the Central Pollution Control Board data. The national capital’s air quality is not expected to improve much in the coming days.
“An improvement in ventilation index is forecast for the next two days, AQI is likely to marginally improve to the middle to lower end of the very poor category for Saturday. AQI is forecast to marginally deteriorate towards the middle-end of the very poor category on January 31 and February 1,” said a statement by the government-run monitoring agency, SAFAR (System of Air Quality and Weather Forecasting and Research).
The speed of surface-level winds was “slow”, which aided in accumulation of pollutants near the surface. Also, the “mixing layer height”, which is the height from the ground level up to which pollutants can be dispersed, was “low”. This also led to accumulation of pollutants near the surface.
ADVERTISEMENT
The AQI of Delhi was 387 on Friday, up from 357 on Thursday, as per CPCB’s 4 p.m. bulletin, which is an average of the past 24 hours. The values for Gurugram and Noida were 342 and 415.