Muskan Bhatia
New Delhi, Jan 2 (UNI) Strong winds in the national capital region (NCR) on Friday improved the city’s air quality, offering mild relief to the residents from toxic air.
At 4 p.m. on Friday, the 24-hour rolling average of Delhi’s Air Quality Index (AQI) stood at 236, a marginal improvement from the previous day’s reading of 380, entering the ‘poor’ category from the ‘very poor’ category, according to the data from the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB).
North-westerly winds reaching up to the speed of 15-18 kmph on Friday helped in dispersing the pollutant levels that had accumulated near the ground amid the cold weather conditions. The trend is likely to continue, added the experts.
“Moderate wind conditions are expected to persist over the next 2-3 days, keeping the AQI in the same category”, Mahesh Palawat, Vice-President at SkyMet, a private weather forecaster, told UNI. “Models indicate a continuous stream of wind flow, as no western disturbances are expected in the region,” he added.
Warning that cold westerly winds from the upper Himalayan reaches experiencing snowfall are likely to hit Delhi-NCR, Palawat noted that the mercury levels are likely to dip by 3-4 degrees Celsius in Delhi in the next few days, bringing down the minimum to 5-6 degrees.
Meanwhile, the city’s maximum temperature on Friday stood at 17.4 degrees Celsius, nearly 2 degrees below normal. While the minimum settled at 9 degrees Celsius, which is 2 degrees above normal for this time of the year, according to the India Meteorological Department (IMD).
