Sporadic rain to keep air clean, but expect high levels of humidity today

After receiving 2mm of rainfall on Saturday, the city saw mainly clear skies on Sunday with favourable air quality, recording a value of 35 (‘good’) on the Central Pollution Control Board’s daily air quality index (AQI) bulletin. The concentration of PM2.5, Gurugram’s most prominent pollutant, stood at an average of 35ug/m3 (micrograms per cubic metre of air), less than the standard of 60ug/m3, prescribed in the National Ambient Air Quality guidelines. The maximum concentration of PM2.5 on Sunday was 66ug/m3, with a minimum of 26ug/m3.

According to the India Meteorological Department’s (IMD) seven-day forecast, the city might experience one or two sporadic spells of rain on Monday, with mainly clear skies till at least August 22. “Partly cloudy skies with thundery developments” are predicted for August 23 and August 24.

According to the CPCB’s Air Quality Early Warning System for Delhi-NCR, “Air quality is likely to deteriorate marginally between Monday and Tuesday and may stay in the ‘satisfactory’ category.” The Central Control Room for Air Quality Management’s predicted daily average AQI for Gurugram was not available on Sunday.

With mainly clear skies and no rainfall on Sunday, the maximum daytime temperature in Gurugram rose from 27.4 degrees Celsius on Saturday to 30 degrees Celsius on Sunday, and is expected to touch 32 degrees Celsius on Monday, according to the IMD. Minimum temperatures remained the same, at 24.6 degrees Celsius.

The mercury is expected to rise further this week in the absence of rainfall, to as much as 37 degrees on August 22. With high relative humidity levels (90%, at 5:30pm on Sunday), the atmosphere is expected to be muggy over the next couple of days.

First Published: Aug 19, 2019 06:10 IST