Noida: The city's air quality deteriorated on Saturday with the air quality index (AQI) at 323, several notches up from Friday's 312, while Ghaziabad recorded an AQI of 339, up from 302 on Friday. Greater Noida's air quality index worsened to 307— in the ‘very poor' category — from Friday's ‘poor' AQI at 262.
Noida's Sector 1 recorded an AQI of 338 on Saturday, while sectors 116 and 125 were at 331 and 312 respectively—all in the ‘very poor' category. In Greater Noida, Knowledge Park V recorded an AQI of 323 and Knowledge Park III at 303—in the ‘very poor' category. Meanwhile, Ghaziabad's Loni recorded a ‘severe' AQI with a reading of 450, followed by Vasundhara at 338 and Sanjay Nagar at 313—both in the ‘very poor' category. Indirapuram's AQI was at 268 in the ‘poor category'.
According to a bulletin issued by the Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorology (IITM), predominant surface winds entered Delhi-NCR from northeast directions, with wind speeds of 4-8 kmph during the day and calm conditions during the evening, accompanied by smog and shallow fog during the later hours on Saturday.
The bulletin mentioned that the wind speed is likely to increase to 4-12 kmph on Sunday. Meanwhile, Delhi-NCR recorded a visibility between 300-500 metres during early hours of the day. The maximum mixing depth was recorded at 1500 metres on Saturday, which is likely to reach 1800 metres on Sunday.
The ventilation index, lower than 6000 metres with an average wind speed of less than 10 kmph, is unfavourable for the dispersion of pollutants.
Meanwhile, a haze hung over Delhi as the city recorded the eighth severe day of the month, with the air quality index (AQI) rising to 412 on Saturday, compared to 393 in the ‘very poor' range a day earlier, according to Central Pollution Control Board's (CPCB) bulletin released at 4pm.
However, the air quality saw a slight improvement later on Saturday as AQI touched 398 in the higher end of the ‘very poor' category at 8pm. AQI is likely to remain ‘very poor' from Sunday to Tuesday, according to Air Quality Early Warning System for Delhi, the forecasting body under the Union ministry of earth sciences.