New Delhi, 16 Dec (UNI) Delhi’s air quality showed signs of improvement on Tuesday morning, bringing some relief after three days of hazardous ‘severe’ pollution levels.
At 6 am, Delhi’s air quality index (AQI) stood at 381 in the ‘very poor’ category, showing an improvement from Monday’s reading of 427 and Sunday’s 461, the highest pollution level recorded in the city so far this winter.
Experts attributed the improvement to persistent surface winds that helped disperse pollutants trapped near the ground. Wind speeds picked up on Monday afternoon, gusting up to 15 kmph, and continued through the night.
According to the India Meteorological Department (IMD), air quality was likely to improve further on Tuesday as surface wind speeds were forecast to reach up to 25 kmph in parts of Delhi during the day, offering brief relief from hazardous pollution levels.
Unlike the previous three days, when nearly all of Delhi’s 39 monitoring stations recorded ‘severe’ air quality, only 11 stations breached the ‘severe’ mark on Tuesday morning. Wazirpur recorded the worst air quality in the city, with an AQI of 434, followed by other pollution hotspots such as Jahangirpuri (430), Mundka (424), and DTU (423).
The Centre’s Early Warning System (EWS) for air quality in Delhi on Monday predicted that air quality would remain in the ‘very poor’ category from Tuesday through Thursday.
Meanwhile, the city’s minimum temperature rose significantly on Tuesday, settling at 11.2 degrees Celsius, 2.6 degrees above the normal for this time of year.
Winds offer relief to Delhi as AQI eases from ‘severe’ to ‘very poor’
