Average AQI hits ‘severe’ at most monitoring stations in Delhi

Out of 35 monitoring stations for which 24-hour average data was available at 10 am, 20 stations recorded AQI in the ‘severe’ category, while 14 stations registered AQI in the ‘very poor’ category. A single station, the one at Mandir Marg, had the city’s best air quality, which was in the ‘poor’ category.

The 24-hour average AQI was ‘severe’ at stations including Anand Vihar, Ashok Vihar, Jahangirpuri, ITO, Bawana, Rohini, Narela, Dwarka, Shadipur, RK Puram, Sonia Vihar and Nehru Nagar. AQI between 401 and 500 is considered to be ‘severe’.

Delhi’s air quality is likely to remain ‘very poor’ till October 31, according to a forecast issued by the Air Quality Early Warning System.

The AQI on Friday was 357, marginally higher than the 354 recorded on Thursday. An update issued by the SAFAR forecasting system on Friday said that low local wind speeds have been preventing the dispersion of pollutants. Other parts of the NCR, including Faridabad, Ghaziabad, Gurgaon, Noida, Greater Noida, Bulandshahr and Jind also recorded air quality in the ‘very poor’ category on Friday. AQI between 301 and 400 is considered to be ‘very poor’.

The contribution of stubble burning to PM2.5 levels in Delhi increased on Friday to around 7 per cent. The crop residue burning-related fire counts in Punjab on Friday also increased to what has been the highest single-day count so far – 2,067. Haryana recorded 123 paddy residue burning events on Friday, according to data from the Indian Agricultural Research Institute.

Meanwhile, the minimum temperature in Delhi was around 15.6 degrees Celsius early on Saturday, which is around the normal for this time of the year. The maximum temperature recorded on Friday was 31.3 degrees. The minimum temperature is likely to remain at around 14 or 15 degrees Celsius for the next six days.