After almost 20 days, the air quality in Delhi again turned ‘severe’ on Friday with the average Air Quality Index (AQI) at 404 at 4 p.m., according to the Central Pollution Control Board.
The air quality in Faridabad, Ghaziabad, Greater Noida, Noida and Gurugram was worse at 450, 471, 442, 469 and 460 respectively.
An AQI between 0-50 is considered ‘good’, 51-100 ‘satisfactory’, 101-200 ‘moderate’, 201-300 ‘poor’, 301-400 ‘very poor’ and 401-500 ‘severe’.
Stubble burning
System of Air Quality and Weather Forecasting And Research (SAFAR), the government’s air quality monitoring and forecasting centre, said smoke from stubble burning accounted for 3% of Delhi’s PM 2.5 pollution on Friday and it is likely to drop to 2% on Saturday.
“The air quality is likely to remain in the lower end of ‘very poor’ to ‘severe’ category on December 7, improve marginally on December 8, but remain in the upper end of ‘very poor’ category. A fresh western disturbance is likely to affect north-west India by December 11 and improve ventilation. Hence, there is no significant relief till December 10,” SAFAR said in its bulletin.
The agency has also said that there will be shallow to moderate fog in the morning but clear skies thereafter.
The minimum temperature on Friday settled at 8.4 degrees Celsius, which was one notch below the normal for the season. The maximum settled at 24.2 degrees Celsius, which was normal for the season.
