Pollution levels dropped further on Wednesday in Delhi due to clearer skies and moderate wind with Air Quality Index (AQI) at 267, about 100 points down from Tuesday’s count. The air quality improved from “very poor” category to “poor” category.
The situation will further improve on Thursday due to strong winds and rain. However, weather experts fear a cloud cover at night and drizzle could lead to deterioration of air quality for some time on Friday. But the air will keep on improving from Saturday.
The levels of PM2.5 — tiny particulate matter less than 2.5 microns in diameter that can enter into the lungs and event the bloodstream — dropped to 107 micrograms per cubic metre (ug/m3) in the Delhi-NCR region.
Meanwhile, the System of Air Quality and Weather Forecasting And Research (SAFAR) on Wednesday said that though Punjab recorded the season’s highest farm fire count of 6,668 on Tuesday, its impact on Delhi’s air quality on Wednesday was meager 3 per cent due to the favourable wind direction.
According to senior IMD scientist Kuldeep Srivastava, clear sky or absence of clouds allowed sunray to reach the ground, warming up the air close to the ground which cleared the pollutants.
The PM10 concentration was 226 ug/m3 at 1.30 pm. The safe levels of PM2.5 and PM10 are 60 ug/m3and 100 ug/m3, respectively.