Air pollution levels rise in Delhi before Diwali
New Delhi: Air pollution in the nation’s capital rose significantly on Wednesday, one day before Diwali, with up to eight monitoring stations reporting “very poor” air quality.
At 9 am, Delhi’s total Air Quality Index (AQI) was 278—up from 268 the day before.
After many days of “very poor” quality air, the city’s overall AQI remained in the “poor” category, with a little improvement from Tuesday owing to favorable wind speed.
Delhi registered an AQI of 359 on Sunday and 304 on Monday.
An AQI of zero to fifty is regarded as “good.” 51–100 is “satisfactory,” 101–200 is “moderate,” 201–300 is “poor,” 301–400 is “very poor,” and 401–500 is “severe.”
Eight of the 36 monitoring stations that provided data—Aya Nagar, Bawana, Jahangirpuri, Mundka, Vivek Vihar, Wazirpur, Ashok Vihar, and Anand Vihar—recorded “very poor” category AQI in the morning, according to statistics from the Central Pollution Control Board.
The temperature hasn’t started to drop yet. The lowest temperature in Delhi was 21 degrees Celsius, which is 4.9 degrees warmer than average for this time of year.
At eight in the morning, the humidity was 83 percent. The city will see mostly clear skies throughout the day, with a high of around 36 degrees Celsius predicted.
