|HT|
Delhi’s air quality was in the “very poor” category on Monday morning as overcast weather, light rain, or drizzle were expected. The minimum temperature was likely to be 10 degrees Celsius and a maximum of 22 degrees Celsius. On Sunday, the maximum temperature was 21.4 degrees Celsius and the minimum 9.8 degrees Celsius. According to the Central Pollution Control Board, the hourly Air Quality Index (AQI) at 7 am stood at 395. On Sunday, the average 24-hour AQI was 459.
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”.
On Sunday, the System of Air Quality and Weather Forecasting and Research said for the next two days, winds are likely to be low reducing the ventilation of pollutants. “AQI is expected to be in ‘Severe’ for the next two days. On 28th (Tuesday) onwards, a slight improvement in air quality is likely due to relatively high wind speeds and on 29th (Wednesday) significant improvement is expected due to high easterly winds at height of 700-800 m as well as at 10 m that results in strong ventilation of pollutants,” it said. “Mixing layer height continues to be low (less than 1.0 km). The net effect is that AQI remains to be within ‘Severe’ till 28th and on 29th it is likely to improve to ‘Very poor’.”
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