Dip in Delhi air quality, AQI settles in 'Very Poor' category; light hail storm predicted

The air pollution level in the national capital and areas around it deteriorated on Tuesday morning with the Air Quality Index (AQI) reaching the lower end of the 'Very Poor' category. In the morning, the AQI in Delhi docked at 314, according to the Center-run System of Air Quality and Weather Forecasting And Research (SAFAR).

The AQI was recorded the highest in Mathura Road at 338, followed by Airport (T3) at 328, Delhi University at 317, Dhirpur at 316, Ayanagar at 310, Chandni Chowk and Lodhi Road at 309,  IIT Delhi at 302, and Pusa at 272. The AQI in Noida stood at 354 and Gurugram at 317.

The temperature at 5.30 am in Delhi's Safdarjung and Palam was 13 degrees Celcius. The minimum temperature is expected at 10 degrees Celcius and the maximum temperature at 18 degrees Celcius. The visibility at Safdarjung was 1,200 metres and at Palam was 1,500 metres. There is also the possibility of a light hail storm at the end of the day which will continue will Wednesday (January 8) evening.

Under the influence of the approaching western disturbance, scattered to fairly widespread rainfall is expecting on January7-8. An increase in surface winds and an increase in minimum temperature are the forecasts for the coming days. Under these favourable conditions, air quality is forecasted to improve. A further improvement is expected in case of sufficient rain towards the lowe end of the poor to a satisfactory category by January 8. The fall in minimum temperature by 3-4 degree is expected from January 9-11 and the maximum temperature by 4 to 5 degrees during January 8-10.

In November 2019, the Supreme Court had come down heavily on the Centre and state government over their failure to tackle the pollution crisis in the national capital regions. A bench of Justices Arun Mishra and Deepak Gupta had remarked, "The people of Delhi are living in a gas chamber. It is better to get explosives and kill everyone". 

Measures like containing stubble burning activities in the neighbouring states of Punjab, Haryana, implementation of the odd-even scheme in Delhi and banning all sort of construction activities in Delhi-NCR were taken in order to control the air pollution in the capital and adjoining areas.

An AQI between 0-50 is considered `good`, 51-100 `satisfactory`, 101-200 `moderate`, 201-300 `poor`, 301-400 `very poor` and 401-500 is marked as `severe`. An AQI above 500 falls in the `severe plus` category.

During winter each year, most of northern India suffers from a spike in toxicity in the air due to the change in weather patterns and crop residue burning in the neighbouring states of Haryana, Punjab and Uttar Pradesh.