Delhi’s air quality improves to ‘poor’ from ‘very poor’, AQI predicted to worsen from tomorrow

New Delhi: The air quality in the national capital improved to ‘poor’ from ‘very poor’ category on Friday, a day after the national capital experienced intermittent rain spells, with the overall Air Quality Index (AQI) at 273, according to the System of Air Quality and Weather Forecasting And Research (SAFAR).

High winds and intermittent rains are likely during January 5 to 8 which is expected to improve AQI through strong dispersion and wet deposition.
On January 8, it is likely to rain with high wind speeds leading to improvement in AQI due to wet deposition and strong dispersion resulting AQI to be in ‘lower end of poor’ or ‘moderate’ category,” SAFAR said.

From January 9 onwards, the air quality is likely to worsen due to gradual decrease in maximum and minimum temperatures as well as wind speed, all contributing to low dispersion of pollutants.

Meanwhile, the air quality of Noida remains in the ‘very poor’ category with the AQI at 305, the air quality of Gurugram is also in the ‘very poor’ category with the AQI at 306.

As per the government agencies, 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’.

According to the India Meteorological Department (IMD), no cold wave conditions will likely prevail in northern India for the next 6-7 days.