Delhi's air quality improves marginally, still in severe category

Delhi's air quality remained in the severe category for the third consecutive day on Saturday with the 24-hour average air quality index being recorded at 437, a marginal improvement from the day before.

The air quality index of neighbouring Ghaziabad, Gurugram, Noida, Faridabad, Greater Noida was recorded at 441, 441, 423, 464 and 408, respectively.

In Delhi, the AQI of Anand Vihar, Jahangirpuri, Wazirpur, Okhla, Rohini and Narela stood at 450, 453, 452, 460, 427 and 414, respectively.

On Friday, the 24-hour average Air Quality Index (AQI) was recorded at 471, the worst this season so far. The AQI was 411 on Thursday and 372 on Wednesday.

An AQI between zero and 50 is considered 'good', 51 and 100 'satisfactory', 101 and 200 'moderate', 201 and 300 'poor', 301 and 400 'very poor', and 401 and 500 'severe'.

According to the Ministry of Earth Sciences' air quality forecasting agency SAFAR, the AQI is likely to improve for the next two days as winds at transport level (925 mb) are slowing down resulting in lesser intrusion of farm fires related pollutants into Delhi.

"However, as local winds are becoming calm and minimum temperature is decreasing further, preventing efficient dispersion of pollutants leading to improvement of air quality to upper end of very poor category or lower end of severe category," the forecasting agency said in its forecast.

In the last 24 hours, the number of farm fires recorded stood at 3,157, accounting for 31 per cent of Delhi's pollution on Saturday.

Delhi recorded a maximum temperature of 27.4 degrees Celsius, a notch below the season's average, while the minimum temperature settled at 11.1 degrees Celsius, three notches below normal.

Humidity levels oscillated between 97 per cent and 38 per cent.

The weatherman has forecast mainly clear skies for Sunday with moderate fog in the morning. The maximum and minimum temperatures are likely to be around 26 and 10 degrees Celsius respectively.