Pollution levels in Delhi have reached a peak wherein clear sky conditions seem long forgotten. Visibility has reduced, it is hard to see anything beyond a certain point and masks have come out to save oneself from breathing the highly toxic air. Morning walks for now seem like a distant dream as the air will negate the benefits. The national capital in spirit has come to a halt as residents continue to choke on hazardous air. All in all, it seems like the city is in a very sorry state of affairs at this point.
The air quality has reached the severe stage forcing the government to close schools for the next two days in Delhi and stopping all construction activities, unless extremely necessary.
The Air Quality Index of 500 has become the new normal with pollution hitting the severe mark and air quality reaching the hazardous stage. Out of the multiple factors causing it, even the weather is one.
The weather is such that it does not favour any dispersion of pollutants. For pollutants to wash away and the weather to become clearer, there has to be either of the two things. Either the wind needs to be strong enough to disperse the pollutants away or there has to be some rainfall to wash away the pollutants. The sad part is that as far as the weather forecast is concerned, we do not expect any of these to occur in the next few days.
The pollution level is as it is then worsening over the past few days and came to a stage today where visibility at Palam airport dropped to 500 metres in the morning.
We expect stable layers of atmosphere with light winds and the temperatures will remain within the normal levels. No change is likely in the prevailing meteorological conditions. All these conditions favour the persistence of the thick layer of pollution.
Moreover, even after the wake of a western disturbance today, there is likely to be no relief as the system was very feeble to have no significant effect on the wind pattern. A slight drop in minimums is expected, which is all the worse for the pollution levels as any reduction in night temperatures increases the thick pollution levels.
