Pollution levels drop in Mumbai, AQI likely to remain moderate next 2 days: SAFAR

According to SAFAR’s forecast, the AQI is likely to remain in the moderate category for the next two days. “AQI of Mumbai indicates ‘upper end of moderate’ and likely to be within ‘moderate’ for the next 2 days,” SAFAR said.

An AQI between 201 and 300 is categorised as ‘poor’ and between 301 and 400 is categorised as ‘very poor’ or red. The higher the AQI value, the greater the level of air pollution and health concerns.

Malad in the western suburbs with an AQI of 311 and Mazgaon in south Mumbai with 305 AQI, were the most polluted in the city and recorded red category pollution levels. The remaining stations in the city recorded moderate levels of pollution on Saturday morning.

The AQI is a mean of pollutants such as particulate matter (PM2.5 and PM10), ozone (O3), nitrogen dioxide (NO2), Sulphur dioxide (SO2) and carbon monoxide (CO) emissions as a single value. It is recorded by SAFAR by integrating the measurement of air quality with weather forecasts.

Experts said the rise in pollution levels is due to two extreme weather conditions and the dust storm in the north-western region of the country.

Meanwhile, the city continued to record cloudy skies on Saturday. The minimum temperature was a degree above normal at 28.5 degrees Celsius. The relative humidity was at 69 per cent Saturday morning.

According to the seven-day forecast, the city is likely to record the first pre-monsoon showers of the season in the coming week. While cloudy skies are forecast for most of the week, rain and thunderstorm are likely in the city on May 25 and 26.