Delhi's air quality shows marginal improvement, AQI stands at 363

A day after entering the "severe" category, Delhi's air quality showed a marginal improvement as it came under the "very poor category" on Monday morning.

Delhi's air quality index (AQI) read 363 at 8.10 am.

An AQI between 201 and 300 is considered ''poor'', 301 and 400 ''very poor'', and 401 and 500 ''severe''.

As pollution levels in the national capital shot up on Sunday, the Centre's air quality panel directed authorities in the Delhi-NCR to ban non-essential construction work in the region under stage III of the Graded Response Action Plan (GRAP).

Delhi's 24-hour average AQI stood at 407 at 4 pm on Sunday. The city air quality was last classified in the "severe" category on November 4, when the AQI was 447.

The minimum temperature on Monday was 7.6 degrees Celsius, a notch below the season's average. The relative humidity at 8.30 am was 95 per cent.

The weather office has forecast mainly clear skies for the day with the maximum temperature likely to settle at 26 degrees Celsius.