Delhi's air quality slipped again on Friday morning to push the city into the "very poor" category. At 7 am, the overall AQI stood at 324, according to the Central Pollution Control Board, which is a further decline after a brief improvement a day earlier. With rising pollution levels, the mercury is also expected to see a sharp drop. The India Meteorological Department has issued a yellow alert for a cold wave in the national capital.
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Majority of the monitoring stations were in the 'very poor' zone
Of Delhi's 39 monitoring stations, 30 recorded AQI readings in the very poor category, while the remaining nine fell under the poor bracket. Several locations have remained near the higher end of the poor range but continued to stay below the threshold for very poor.
Other stations that reported very poor air included Chandni Chowk at 352, RK Puram at 374, Rohini at 363, Vivek Vihar at 355, Bawana at 373, Siri Fort at 344, Wazirpur at 358, Anand Vihar at 348, Ashok Vihar at 341, Mathura Road at 313, and Sonia Vihar at 341.
Places with poor air quality readings included IGI Airport (267), Aya Nagar (291), IIT Delhi (298), IITM-Lodhi Road (290) and IMD-Lodhi Road (286), along with four other stations.
AQI to remain in the ‘very poor’ category
The Air Quality Early Warning System has forecast that Delhi's overall AQI will continue in the very poor range for the coming few days. The city recorded sharp fluctuations this week: AQI rose from 279 on November 30 to 304 on December 1, deteriorated further to 372 on December 2 and then marginally improved to 342 on December 3.
After improving briefly on Thursday morning, pollution levels worsened again in the evening and dropped into the very poor zone again on Friday.
According to the CPCB, AQI in the range of 301-400 is considered very poor, while 401-500 falls under the severe category.
Transport emissions remain major contributor
The transport sector contributed 13.7% of the city’s pollution, the highest among local sources, according to the Decision Support System for Delhi, on Thursday. This share is expected to rise to around 15% on Friday.
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IMD forecasts cold wave conditions
IMD has forecast a minimum temperature of 4-6°C, while the maximum is likely to settle around 23°C. The sky will be mainly cloudy, with shallow fog in the morning and isolated cold wave conditions on Friday. Surface winds from the northwest are expected to blow at up to 10 kmph in the morning, increase to below 12 kmph in the afternoon, and weaken again to under 10 kmph by evening and night.
