Rain improves Delhi air; relief unlikely to last as cold wave could be back again

Thanks to Thursday's rain, Delhi's overall air quality on Friday saw a sudden improvement to 'moderate' with Air Quality Index (AQI) recorded at 151, a drastic improvement from Friday's 'very poor' air at 311.

On Friday morning, the air quality was recorded in the very poor category (319). Consistent wind speed, however, turned it to 'moderate' by 4 p.m.

The authorities say this is just a temporary relief, "purely attributable to rainfall", and it is expected to deteriorate slowly due to stable winds and prevailing shallow fog.

"The AQI is likely to deteriorate to poor for the next two days and may become very poor by Monday," System of Air Quality and Weather Forecasting And Research said in its daily pollution analysis.

In the national capital region too, Faridabad at 123, Ghaziabad at 164, Greater Noida at 143, Gurugram at 126, and Noida at 134 also had 'moderate' levels of pollutants on Friday.

The India Meteorological Department (IMD) has forecast a drop in the minimum temperature by 3-4 degrees Celsius in Delhi in the next five days.

"On January 28 and 29, the minimum temperature in Delhi is expected to touch 4 degrees Celsius with shallow to moderate fog covering the skies," an IMD official said.

"North-west winds from the Himalayas will lead to a drop in minimum temperature in Delhi in the coming days. This will lead to the development of cold wave to severe cold wave conditions over the plains of Northwest India," Mahesh Palawat, Director at private weather forecasting agency Skymet told IANS.

Meanwhile, the maximum temperature on Friday was recorded at 18.6 degrees Celsius, four notches below the season's average while the minimum was recorded at 10 degrees Celsius, two notches above the normal.

"On Saturday, there will be moderate to dense fog in the morning and a partly cloudy sky later in the day. The minimum is expected to hover around 7 degrees Celsius, while the maximum will hover around 19 degrees Celsius," IMD forecast said.

Across 35 areas in Delhi, where pollution is actively monitored, the average concentration of PM 2.5 and PM 10 was 72 and 119 microgrammes per cubic meters, respectively, on Friday at 6 p.m.

Concentration of PM 2.5 and PM 10 across 48 monitoring stations in the NCR stood at 68 and 115, respectively.

--IANS

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