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Delhi wakes to 'poor' air at AQI 233 as forecasters warn of 'very poor' by Thursday
The CPCB reading at 9 am on Wednesday put the capital firmly in the poor band, and the early warning system expects an AQI of 342 by Thursday morning as cooler nights and weak winds trap pollutants.
Key points
- Delhi's air quality index stood at 233 at 9 am on Wednesday, in the poor category.
- The early warning system forecasts an AQI of 342, very poor, at 9 am on Thursday.
- Safdarjung recorded a minimum of 18°C, below the seasonal average.
Delhi’s air turned poor on Wednesday morning, and forecasters expect it to get worse before the week is out.
The Central Pollution Control Board put the city’s air quality index at 233 at 9 am, well inside the poor band of 201 to 300. Two hours earlier, the Air Quality Early Warning System run by the Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorology in Pune with the India Meteorological Department had shown 219. On Tuesday the CPCB’s 4 pm daily bulletin, built from 54 of the city’s 59 monitoring stations, had recorded 179, still moderate, with fine particulate matter (PM2.5) as the main pollutant.
A sharper slide ahead
The early warning dashboard projects an AQI of 342 at 9 am on Thursday, which would put the capital in the very poor category of 301 to 400. The IMD bulletin issued on Tuesday forecast poor air from 21 to 23 October and poor conditions for the six days after that.
The change follows a run of cooler, drier days. Safdarjung, the city’s main weather station, recorded a minimum of 18°C on Wednesday, below the seasonal average. Palam logged 17.8°C, 1.1 degrees below normal, Ayanagar 17.7°C and the Ridge 19.1°C. The daytime maximum was expected to touch about 31°C. On Tuesday the city’s maximum was 31.8°C, 0.8 degrees below normal.
Cool nights and light winds keep pollutants close to the ground, and with no rain in the forecast there is little to wash them out. Farm fires in Punjab and Haryana, which usually pick up in late October, add to the load.
What GRAP could bring
The Commission for Air Quality Management runs the Graded Response Action Plan for Delhi and the National Capital Region. Its four stages bring progressively tighter curbs, from dust control and limits on diesel generators to restrictions on construction and on vehicles. The commission can trigger stages on the strength of forecasts, not only on readings already recorded, so a forecast of very poor air can bring Stage II measures before the city actually crosses 300.
No new GRAP order had been announced by Wednesday afternoon. With Diwali on 8 November and the stubble season under way, the coming fortnight is usually when the city’s air takes its sharpest turn.
The CPCB’s 4 pm bulletin, the official daily figure, is due later on Wednesday.