Air quality in the national capital remained in the ‘very poor’ category on Friday and is likely to deteriorate marginally on Saturday as well.

The air quality, however, is expected to deteriorate significantly after that, government agencies have warned.

“Air quality is likely to remain in the ‘very poor’ category in the coming week. However, it is expected to deteriorate to the higher side of ‘very poor’ on December 2 and 3. This is mainly because of unfavourable meteorological conditions. Low wind speed and high moisture content allow further trapping of pollutants,” a statement issued by Safar, the Union government’s air quality forecasting system, said.

The air quality index (AQI) value of Delhi was recorded as 352 at 4pm on Friday against Thursday’s 358. However, several monitoring stations in the capital including Anand Vihar, Mundka, Bwana, Burari and Wazirpur, among others, inched closer to the ‘severe’ category.

An AQI value above 400 is recorded in ‘severe’ category and can seriously impact the health of people living in the area.

NCR towns, including Noida and Ghaziabad, recorded ‘very poor’ air quality while Gurugram fared much better recording ‘moderate’ air.

According to Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) officials, concentration of PM 2.5 may also shoot up over the next three days, as weather conditions are not favourable for dispersion of pollutants.

PM2.5 is mainly generated from vehicular emissions and from waste and crop residue burning. At present the major source of air pollution in the capital is local emissions such as those from vehicles, industries and waste burning. There is no significant contribution from crop residue burning, said CPCB officials.

According to India Meteorological Department’s (IMD) forecast, the minimum and maximum temperatures on Saturday are likely to hover around 26 degrees Celsius and 10 degrees Celsius.

On Friday, the minimum temperature settled at 10.7 degrees Celsius while the day temperature was recorded at 26.4 degrees Celsius, both of which are a notch above normal.

First Published: Dec 01, 2018 09:20 IST