New Delhi, Oct 24 (UNI) Delhi on Saturday witnessed "very poor" air quality.

Air Quality Index (AQI) for the past 24 hours was 345, according to a daily update from the Central Pollution Control Board.

An AQI between 0 and 50 is considered "good", 51 and 100 "satisfactory", 101 and 200 "moderate", 201 and 300 "poor", 301 and 400 "very poor", and 401 and 500 "severe".

The AQI in Greater Noida was 358 while 325 in Gurugram. It was noted 356 in Ghaziabad and 347 in Noida, the bulletin said.

All the values in Delhi-NCR were in the "red" category and it can cause "respiratory illness on prolonged exposure", as per the CPCB.

According to the System of Air Quality and Weather Forecasting And Research, the AQI in Delhi will further deteriorate in the coming days.

"This is mainly because the extremely calm local surface winds which were prevailing yesterday are likely to increase slightly and may further pick-up by 26th Oct. Hence, although AQI is predicted to continue to remain in very poor range but without further deterioration," the real time monitoring agency said in a statement.

As per the SAFAR, 1,292 stubble fires were counted till Friday.

However, the agency calculated the share of stubble burning in the national capital's pollution at 9 per cent owing to low wind speed.

"The boundary layer wind direction is Westerly and wind speed is low. Hence, pollutant transport towards the Delhi region will remain low. The SAFAR model estimate of stubble burning share in PM2.5 is 9 pc," it said.

As per the India Meteorological Department, the maximum temperature recorded on Saturday was 33.2 degree Celsius, one degree above normal, while the minimum was 14.3 deg C, two notches below par.

Relative humidity at 1730hrs was 44 per cent, the IMD said. The sunrise was timed at 0628 hrs while sunset 1743 hrs.

For Sunday, the IMD has forecast the mercury to range between 34 deg C-14 deg C with mist.

UNI PS RP1928