NEW DELHI: A day after it witnessed light showers, Delhi woke up to a windy and cold morning. Chilly winds brought the mercury down by three notches in Delhi while the national capital’s air quality witnessed substantial improvement on Monday.
The minimum temperature was recorded at 10.2 degrees Celsius, a notch above the season’s average. The relative humidity at 8:30 am was recorded at 100 percent. The weatherman forecast partly cloudy skies for the day and said the maximum temperature is likely to settle around 20 degrees Celsius.
Delhi’s air quality also saw a marginal improvement from ‘very poor’ to ‘poor’ on Monday. The 24-hour AQI on Sunday was recorded at 331 (very poor) but on Monday morning, the AQI read 285. The IMD said that fall by 2-3°C in minimum temperatures is very likely over many parts of Northwest India till February 1 and a rise by 2-4°C thereafter.
According to the Ministry of Earth Sciences’ air quality monitor SAFAR, Monday’s AQI indicated ‘upper end of moderate’ air quality and the improvement was triggered due to washing out of pollutants by Sunday’s rain.
“For the next three days, surface wind speed (16 to 20 km kilometres per hour) and temperature (maximum 20 to 22 degrees Celsius; minimum 8 to 10 degrees) are likely to improve air quality.
“Air quality is likely to improve but be within ‘moderate’ or ‘lower end of poor’ for the next three days due to enhanced dispersion by strong surface wind speed.
Upper-level winds (around 800 m) from southeast direction today are likely to reverse to northwest tomorrow and intensify significantly on February 1 that helps dilution of pollution and improvement in air quality,” the air quality monitor said.