Winters might have bid an adieu to Delhi long way back, but pollution continues bothering the city till now. Monday as well saw ‘very poor’ air quality with the combined effect of dusty winds blowing from Rajasthan, stubble burning in neighboring states of Punjab and Haryana and the forest fires in Uttarakhand. Also, the Northwest India has only received a below normal rain till now aggravating dusty and dry conditions. The state of Uttarakhand has recorded the highest number of forest fires in the past week as the weather is ideal for such conditions.
Already there have been four “very poor” air quality days in last week when the average PM 2.5 concentrations often crossed 250 which is four times the national safe standard.
Yesterday however some relief was seen from the rising pollution and scorching sun when Delhi NCR saw heavy rains at night. This however will only be short lived.
According to scientists at Skymet, the pollution will continue to remain in “poor” to “very poor” category at least until the next two days.
Ghaziabad on Monday was the most polluted city in the country with an Air Quality Index (AQI) of 384. Neighboring Noida was the second most polluted city with AQI value of 347. These figures are disturbing as the levels are way higher than the ‘healthy’ category.
Image Credits – Hindustan Times
Any information taken from here should be credited to Skymet Weather