Delhi's air quality continues to be 'moderate', likely to deteriorate soon
A spell of rain in Delhi a day ago brought down the temperature in the national capital on Monday and the air quality showed a marginal improvement to the "moderate" category on Monday.
According to the India Meteorological Department has forecast a partly cloudy sky today with maximum and minimum temperatures around 31 and 18 degrees Celsius, respectively.
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The System of Air Quality and Weather Forecasting And Research (SAFAR) recorded the overall Air Quality Index (AQI) at 135 on Monday morning.
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"Due to scattered rainfall AQI will improve slightly over the next 24 hours and then again degrade to moderate," SAFAR said. The concentrations of PM 2.5 and PM 10 stood at 68 and 152 respectively in the national capital. SAFAR has predicted AQI in Delhi tomorrow to be 122.
Notably, the air quality in the national capital was in the "poor" category last week with an increase in stubble burning.
In presence of local dry weather and southwesterly wind, local dust emission will enhance PM10. Additional dust input from desert areas via transport is very likely in the national capital, according to SAFAR, which is under the Centre's Ministry of Earth Science.
Stubble burning effective fire count as per the SAFAR model is 735 and its share in PM2.5 is 2 percent. The impact of fire emission will be low as wind is mainly from south-westerly.
With a change in wind direction from south-westerly to north-westerly, the AQI may degrade. An AQI between 0-50 is marked good, 51-100 is satisfactory, 101-200 is moderate, 201- 300 is poor, 301-400 is very poor and 401-500 is considered severe.
Meanwhile, Delhi Government has started the 'Red Light On, Gaadi Off' campaign from October 18 with an aim to tackle air pollution, and the first phase of the campaign will run till November 18.
