Sunny day in Delhi, air quality slips into poor zone

A sunny day prevailed in the national capital today with the mercury settling at 10 degrees Celsius, even as the city's air quality index entered 'very poor' zone.
The city, however, is expected to witness light rains tomorrow which will subsequently improve the air quality as the showers will help disperse the suspended particulates.
The minimum temperature in the national capital settled at 10 degrees Celsius, two notches above the season's average while the maximum was recorded at 25.6 degrees, four notches above the normal, said a Met Department official.
The visibility was recorded at 1,000 meters at 5.30 AM at Safdarjung which dropped to 200 meters three hours later. It improved significantly to 1,500 metres at 11.30 AM.

"At Palam, visibility was recorded at 300 meters at 5.30 AM which improved to 400 meters at 8.30 AM. It later improved to 100 meters at 11.30 AM," the official said.
Early morning fog in the city disrupted rail services with 30 north-bound trains running late and 14 rescheduled.

The MeT office has forecast partly cloudy skies for tomorrow with the likelihood of light rains and thunderstorms in some areas.
"The skies will be partly cloudy and there is a possibility of light rain and thunderstorm in some areas. There will be shallow to moderate fog in the morning. Maximum and minimum temperatures are likely to hover around 21 and 14 degrees Celsius respectively tomorrow," the weatherman said.

According to the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB), the 24-hour-average of the city's air quality index was in the 'very poor' zone today.
The rolling average of PM 2.5 and PM 10 were 134 and 253 micrograms per cubic metre, as per SAFAR.
It is likely to improve to 117 and 225 tomorrow, riding on the back of rain and strong wind movement, factors that help disperse suspended particulates.
The corresponding safe standards of these ultrafine particulate matters are 60 and 100 respectively.
The Supreme Court-empowered Environment Pollution Control Authority (EPCA) has already rolled out measures under the Graded Response Action Plan (GRAP) to combat very poor quality air in the city.

Yesterday, the minimum temperature was recored at 10 degrees Celsius while the maximum stood at 24.6 degrees Celsius.