Delhi’s air quality was in the moderate category on Friday morning as overcast weather with moderate rain was expected, the India Meteorological Department (IMD) said. IMD said the minimum temperature is likely to be 26 degrees Celsius and the maximum 34 degree Celsius.
According to the Central Pollution Control Board, the hourly air quality index (AQI) was 92 at 7am. On Thursday, the average 24-hour AQI was 112.
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’.
On Thursday, monitoring agency System of Air Quality and Weather Forecasting and Research said dust (size > 2.5 micrometre) contributed ~ 54% to PM10. “For the next 3 days...peak wind speed is likely to be ~ 12-16 km/h causing moderate dispersion and AQI is likely to be within ‘moderate’ or ‘upper end of satisfactory’ due to expected light rain spells. Moderate temperature (~ 34-35 deg C) and mixing layer height (~ 1.5) maintains moderate ventilation.”
On Thursday, the maximum temperature was 34.6 degrees Celsius and the minimum 26.8 degree Celsius.
