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Air very poor in Delhi, Noida severe; expect dense fog today
Delhi’s air quality remained in the ‘Very Poor’ category on Friday with an average AQI of 374, while Noida slipped into ‘Severe’ and Gurgaon saw worsening pollution; dense fog and unfavourable weather conditions are likely to keep air quality poor over the coming days.
A view from a Noida high-rise shows a thick blanket rendering the city skyline invisible (Express Photos: Abhishek Chakraborty).
Delhi continued to gasp on Friday as the air quality index (AQI) remained in the ‘Very Poor’ category, with the city recording an average AQI of 374, marginally higher than Thursday’s 373. Even as the air quality in Gurgaon worsened to 322 — it was 276 (Poor) on Thursday — Noida slipped into the ‘Severe’ category with an AQI of 410.
Eleven of the 40 monitoring stations in the Capital recorded ‘Severe’ air quality, while 29 stations remained in the ‘Very Poor’ range. Anand Vihar recorded the highest AQI at 430, according to data from the Central Pollution Control Board’s (CPCB) SAMEER app.
In its forecast, the Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorology (IITM) has said the air quality in the Capital is set to fluctuate between ‘Severe’ and ‘Very Poor’ over the next six days. While the AQI is expected to remain ‘Very Poor’ on Saturday, it will likely deteriorate to ‘Severe’ category over the next two days.
A man cycles through dense fog in Delhi on Saturday morning (PTI)
At 15.72%, the transport sector continued to be the top contributor to Delhi’s PM2.5 emissions on Friday, followed by industrial units at 7.8%. Among neighbouring regions, Jhajjar emerged as the highest contributor at 16%, followed by Rohtak (around 5%) and Sonipat (about 3%). Road dust and construction activities together accounted for about 4%.
Meanwhile, fog has been disrupting the vehicular movement in the city in the late night and early hours of the day. The IMD has sounded an orange alert – for dense to very dense fog — at a few places on Saturday morning. Dense to very dense fog is likely to persist through December 22.
On Friday, dense fog affected visibility in the Capital. Safdarjung weather station, the base station for the city, recorded zero visibility between 5.30 am and 7.30 am, improving to 100 m by 8 am. Palam recorded visibility as low as 50 m from 5.30 am to 8.30 am.
The day temperature settled at 22°C, close to normal, while minimum temperature settled at 9°C, slightly above normal, according to the IMD bulletin.
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Weather conditions are expected to continue hampering pollutant dispersion. The ventilation index, a key indicator of dispersal potential, is likely to remain below 6,000 m²/s over the coming days, with wind speeds largely under 10 kmph, conditions considered unfavourable for AQI improvement.
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