The air quality index (AQI) for the national capital improved marginally on Friday morning, compared to the night before, but continued to hover in the “severe” category.
An AQI between 401 and 500 is considered “severe” and between 301 and 400 falls into the “very poor” category.
Friday morning’s AQI was around 400, while Thursday night’s was 450, which was in the “severe” category.
An AQI greater than 400 can affect healthy people and severely affect people with existing diseases, according to the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB).
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On Wednesday, a layer of smoke and pollutants had built up over the National Capital Delhi (NCR) region due to thousands of stubble fires in neighboring Punjab and local emissions such as traffic and firecrackers.
The layer had built up because the wind speed had been significantly reduced, restricting the dispersal of pollutants. Similar conditions persisted Thursday, but visibility had marginally improved due to a wind speed of around 8 kilometers per hour (kmph).
However, the layer of smog settled again at night after the wind speed decreased.
Stubble fires contributed to 42% of Delhi’s particulate matter load (PM 2.5) on Thursday, which was the highest this season, according to the Indian Institute of Meteorology’s Weather and Air Quality Research and Forecasting System. Tropical (IITM), a Pune- based scientific institution.
“There are two things that are happening simultaneously. The northwesterly winds are bringing in pollutants, while the wind speed has been greatly reduced. Wednesday night and early Thursday morning, the wind was calm. As a result, the contaminants were trapped near the surface. On Thursday morning, the wind speed picked up after 9:30 a.m. for a while, but calmed down overnight. We do not expect a change in wind direction before November 10, when it could gradually shift to the east. However, during the transition of wind direction, generally the wind speed drops, which can further worsen the air quality in Delhi-NCR and other cities in Northwest India, ”said Kuldeep Shrivastava, head of the center. regional weather forecast.
Other cities in northwestern India, such as Bahadurgarh, Bulandshahr, Ghaziabad, Greater Noida, Kanpur, Moradabad and Lucknow, also recorded AQI in the “severe” category.
The low temperature recorded in Delhi as of 6:30 am on Friday was 11.9 degrees Celsius (C), 3 degrees C below normal. The minimum temperature will update again at 8:30 am.
In Delhi-NCR, the bursting of firecrackers has increased due to the upcoming Diwali festival, which will be celebrated on November 14.
However, the Delhi government has announced a ban on the use of firecrackers on this Diwali.
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