NEW DELHI: The city’s air quality plunged to ‘severe’ on Sunday, as Western Disturbance (WD) slowed down and partly cloudy conditions prevailed over the city, weather officials said.
Delhi’s overall air quality on Sunday was 404 in the ‘severe’ range, as opposed to 367 in the very poor category recorded on Saturday, according to the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB).
This is the first ‘severe’ day recorded in the New Year. The officials in the India Meteorological Department (IMD) attributed the deterioration to a fresh yet feeble Western Disturbance affecting the northwest region.“
A western disturbance is impacting the Western Himalayan Region, which is impacting the northern plains as well.
"Although this WD is feeble and the impact will wane away soon, whenever there is a WD approaching, the winds slow down and humidity levels rise because of partly cloudy skies. Winds dying down and high moisture in the atmosphere allow the accumulation of pollutants, while there is no dispersion as such, which results in high pollution levels,” said a senior IMD scientist.
Temperatures are likely to remain high over the next few days because of WD and moisture-laden easterly winds blowing over the city.
The air quality is likely to remain the same over the next three days. It is likely to improve significantly with another WD expected to affect the region during January 5-7, which is expected to be strong and may result in showers.
“An intense Western Disturbance is likely to affect the Western Himalayan Region during January 4-7, with the possibility of isolated heavy rainfall over plains of northwest India, including parts of Delhi around January 5-7, which may clean up the atmosphere of hung up pollutants,” the official said.
Delhi saw the longest bad air spell in December with six consecutive ‘severe’ air quality days and a fortnight of ‘very poor’ days. The air quality had improved briefly on account of good winds, but again returned to ‘very poor.’
