Delhi’s air quality to be ‘very poor’ over next 2-3 days; vehicular fumes, adverse weather culprits

Safar, one of the pollution forecasting agencies of the union government, has forecasted that AQI levels would continue to remain in the very poor category at least over the next two or three days.

The city’s air quality worsened further on Tuesday with pollution levels shooting up primarily because of local emissions such as vehicular fumes. According to officials, adverse weather conditions are also aggravating the pollution levels.

While the Air Quality Index (AQI) value was 330 on Monday, it deteriorated to 373 on Tuesday. This was the fourth consecutive day that the air quality continued to get fouler. The AQI on November 17 was 267.

“While on one hand the wind velocity is not as strong as to favour faster dispersal of pollutants, high moisture levels in the air are trapping pollutants that are being emitted locally. The contribution from stubble burning is negligible,” a Central Pollution Control Board scientist said.

Safar, one of the pollution forecasting agencies of the union government, has forecasted that AQI levels would continue to remain in the very poor category at least over the next two or three days.

“The concentration of PM2.5 (the primary pollutant) could drop on Wednesday. This is because wind speed is likely to increase. But the pollution levels will rise again on Thursday,” a scientist from Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorology (IITM) said. IITM runs the air quality early warning system of Delhi.

The India Meteorological Department has forecasted that there will be light fog or mist on most days over the course of the next week. The night temperature will hover between 12 degrees Celsius and 14 degrees Celsius.

On Tuesday, the night temperature was recorded as 13.5 degrees Celsius, while the day temperature stood at 28.8 degrees Celsius, both of which were one degree above normal.