Delhi’s air quality worsened to the ‘poor’ category

New Delhi: Deteriorating further, the city’s air quality worsened within the poor category on Wednesday, even as the pollution models indicated that the air quality index would turn very poor even before Diwali.The average AQI was 233 at 4pm against 211 on Tuesday. According to weather analysts, while the mornings are likely to turn misty or foggy and winds calmer, the share of stubble burning to the city’s PM2.5 levels is expected to rise from less than 1% to over 4% by Friday. This may lead to AQI deteriorating faster than expected, they added. AQI between 301 to 400 is considered very poor while it is poor between 201-300.In Noida, the average AQI hit 318, breaching the very poor mark in NCR for the first time this season. This was also the country’s worst AQI for the day. In Greater Noida, AQI slipped from moderate 194 to 263 in the poor range while Ghaziabad saw a marginal improvement, recording an AQI of 254 against 261 a day ago, but remained poor. In Gurgaon, the air quality worsened within the poor range — from 216 on Tuesday to 251 on Wednesday.In Delhi, the air quality is likely to be in the poor category from Oct 16 to 18 and may turn very poor on Oct 20, stated the air quality early warning system (EWS). The real-time models from IITM’s EWS at 9pm, however, predict AQI to touch a very poor mark — at least for some time — on Thursday, with an expected reading of 303.On Wednesday, at 4pm, eight monitoring stations were already very poor — Anand Vihar (349), Wazirpur (324), Patparganj and DU North Campus (317 each), Dwarka Sector 8 (314), CRRI, Mathura Road (306), DTU (303) and Major Dhyan Chand National Stadium (301).After AQI turned poor on Tuesday, stage I of Graded Response Action Plan, which focuses on the strict enforcement of the existing guidelines, was imposed in Delhi-NCR. Mahesh Palawat of Skymet said the haziness might increase around Diwali due to calm winds and daytime temperatures might rise marginally due to the aggravating AQI.On Wednesday, the maximum temperature was 32.5 degrees Celsius while the minimum was 18.3, both a notch below normal. The weather department expects the maximum temperature to be 31-33 degrees Celsius on Thursday.