GHAZIABAD/NOIDA: Greater Noida was the third-most polluted city in the country on Friday with an AQI of 394, which is considered “very poor”. The city, however, experienced marginally better air quality than Thursday when the AQI was at 412.
Track the pollution level in your city
On Friday, while Hisar was the most polluted city in the country, Fatehabad was the second-most polluted city.
The AQI in Ghaziabad improved marginally on Friday, compared to Thursday and was recorded at 382. Noida’s AQI was at 374.
According to the System of Air Quality and Weather Forecasting and Research (SAFAR), calm surface wind has led to higher AQI in the area even although there was slight improvement as compared to the previous day.
The wind speed is likely to pick up by Saturday and the air is expected to improve. SAFAR predicts that the AQI is likely to stay in the “very poor category” on Friday.
However, a significant improvement is likely on November 1 when the AQI is expected to remain at the lower-end of the “very poor” or in the “poor” category.
In Delhi, the AQI was in the “very poor” category at 374 according to the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) daily bulletin. However, 12 monitoring stations touched “severe” range on Friday noon.
With Met officials predicting increased surface wind and faster dispersion of pollutants, AQI is likely to improve significantly on Sunday.
SAFAR, the forecasting body under Union ministry of earth sciences, said the farm fire count decreased to 1,143 in neighbouring states on Thursday, after recording season’s highest at 2,912 on Wednesday. Besides, the share of stubble burning to Delhi’s PM2.5 decreased from 36% on Thursday to 19% on Friday.
Kuldeep Srivastava, scientist, India Meteorological Department, and head, Regional Weather Forecasting Centre, said, “Though the wind speed dropped to zero at night time, it started rising during the day and helped in dispersion of pollutants.”
The Air Quality Earth Warning system for Delhi forecast that the predominant surface wind is likely to come from northwest of Delhi with wind speed up to 06-10 kmph. Mainly clear sky and mist in the morning is expected on Saturday.
The CPCB data showed that 12 monitoring stations — Wazirpur, Bawana, Mundka, Anand Vihar, Jahangirpuri, Rohini, Vivek Vihar, Dwarka-Sector 8, Patparganj, Shadipur, DTU and Punjabi Bagh — were in “severe” category on Friday at 12pm after AQI crossed the 400-mark.
However, only Jahangirpuri (411) and Anand Vihar (461) continued to remain in the same category by 7pm.
The air quality improved marginally on Friday as Delhi’s AQI on Thursday morning had turned “severe”, but overall AQI later in the evening remained on the higher side of “very poor” with a reading at 395.
At 367, the overall Air Quality Index (AQI) in Gurugram on Friday was in the “very poor” category. The city also saw a slight dip in pollution levels from 384 the day before. Gurugram reported an AQI of 313 on Wednesday.