The air quality of Delhi and Noida deteriorated slightly and continued to be in ‘poor’ category on Thursday and Gurugram’s fell to ‘poor’ category, as per the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB). The air quality of Delhi is predicted to be in ‘very poor’ category on Friday.
Also, the Capital recorded a minimum temperature of 9.4 degrees on Thursday night, which was three degrees colder than the average for the season.
The minimum temperature, which has been consistently below normal this month due to the absence of any cloud cover, was kept in check due to the influence of a western disturbance on Monday, but then started falling again. The Met department forecast shows that it is likely to fall further as clear skies are likely to continue.
The maximum temperature settled at 25.6 degrees celsius, which was also two degrees below normal.
“The AQI is set to deteriorate and is forecast to be in the ‘very poor’ category for tomorrow [Friday]. However, from Sunday, AQI is forecast to marginally improve but remain in the lower end of ‘very poor’ category on Saturday and Sunday. It is mainly due to accelerated local surface winds, with slight lowering of inversion layer height leading to relatively better ventilation conditions,” said a statement by the government-run monitoring agency SAFAR.
The AQI of Delhi was 283 on Thursday, worse than 211 on Wednesday, as per CPCB’s 4 p.m. bulletin. The values for Gurugram and Noida were 253 and 284 respectively.
The air quality of Delhi worsened on Thursday as the surface winds were calm and boundary layer wind direction was north-westerly. The contribution of stubble burning in neighbouring States to PM2.5 in Delhi was estimated to be only 20% on Thursday.
AAP leader Atishi, meanwhile, on Thursday said that there is not enough staffers or even a room for the newly formed Commission of Air Quality Management and requested the Centre to provide facilities for the same.
