POLLUTION

Delhiites Take a Breath of Fresh Air as Rains Bring Down AQI to "Satisfactory" Levels on Monday

Delhi rain. (Piyal Bhattacharjee / BCCL, Delhi) — Delhi rain.
(Piyal Bhattacharjee / BCCL, Delhi)

Monday, January 10: After incessant rains lashed the national capital over the weekend, Delhiites finally woke up to some clean air this morning. However, this respite from polluted air seems short-lived as the city's Air Quality Index is expected to deteriorate again from tomorrow.

In the past two days, Delhi witnessed persistent rains thanks to a western disturbance that brought wet conditions not just over the capital city but the whole northwest of India.

In Delhi, the Palam observatory recorded 47.6 mm of rainfall during the 24 hours ending at 8.30 am on Saturday, which the India Meteorological Department (IMD) claimed was the second-highest for January data between 1959 and 2022.

This rainfall activity eased the pollution levels considerably, and Delhi's AQI, which has been consistently bad for the last two months, improved and stood at the "satisfactory" level as of this morning.

As per SAFAR (System of Air Quality and Weather Forecasting And Research), Delhi's overall AQI was recorded at 77 as of 11 am today, putting it in the "satisfactory" category. The PM 2.5 and PM 10 levels stood at 35 and 64.

An AQI between zero and 50 is considered ''good'', 51 and 100 ''satisfactory'', 101 and 200 ''moderate'', 201 and 300 ''poor'', 301 and 400 ''very poor'', and 401 and 500 `severe`.

SAFAR's summary states that a few spells of rain yesterday (January 9), causing wet deposition of pollutants, led to "satisfactory" AQI. For the next three days (10th, 11th and 12th), a gradual increase in maximum temperature is likely due to cloud-free conditions, while wind speeds are expected to be moderate, leading to enhanced ventilation.

Therefore, AQI is expected to degrade to "moderate" on January 11 and 12. From January 13 onwards, low wind speeds are expected to reduce dispersion further, degrading air quality.

For the next five days, the air quality is expected to remain mostly in the "poor" to "very poor" range.

As for mercury levels, the IMD has pegged the maximum and minimum temperatures at 17°C and 9°C, respectively, for today.

The Safdarjung Observatory recorded a minimum temperature of 9.6°C, three notches above the normal, both Palam and Lodhi Garden registered 9.4°C.

This entire week's maximum and minimum temperatures will hover around 20°C and 8°C, respectively.

(With inputs from IANS)

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