As far as improvement in air quality goes, Tuesday saw a bit of a silver lining as the Air Quality Index (AQI) in Delhi-NCR improved significantly towards the 'moderate' category before finally settling in 'poor', which even though ironical, still comes as a relief to the national capital territory which had been reeling under 'severe' and even 'hazardous' air quality for the longest while due to the intense air pollution.
Notably, Gurugram's AQI was found to be in the 'moderate' category according to the centre-run System of Air Quality and Weather Forecasting And Research (SAFAR) which docked the AQI at 218 on Tuesday morning, thereby signalling a significantly better quality of air than the past few weeks.
The AQI was recorded the highest in Chandni Chowk at 319, Airport at 204, IIT Delhi at 215, Lodhi Road at 215, Mathura Road at 250, Delhi University at 258, Dhirpur at 271, Pusa at 196, and Ayanagar at 139. The AQI in Noida stood at 284 and Gurugram at 197.
The moderate surface and boundary layer winds are likely to continue on Tuesday, according to SAFAR. However, relief is likely to be short-lived and as per SAFAR-forecast model, winds are going to slow down significantly from Wednesday and may remain very calm on November 20-21.
The AQI will, however, slightly deteriorate at the end of the Tuesday when it will reach the 'Poor' category and might even reach 'Very Poor' on Wednesday, according to the forecast. The AQI can again touch the 'Severe' category on November 21.
Why is this? Experts say that the change in stubble transport-level winds to Northwest (coming from Punjab and Haryana side) and an increase in effective fire counts to 610 are the factors that can contribute towards the deterioration. As transport-level very strong winds are predicted to slow down to moderate level, favouring intrusion in Delhi, the stubble share is estimated to increase to ~13% (In PM2.5) on November.
According to Skymet, strong winds over northern plains have reduced the pollution over Delhi-NCR.
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