Delhi's Air Quality Improves To 'Very Poor' Thanks To An Increase In Wind Speed, Odd-Even

As ironic as it might sound, Delhi's air quality has improved significantly and is now at 'very poor' levels. On Tuesday morning, the overall AQI in the national capital was 381. This is far better than the 'severe' just a day ago when the AQI had crossed the 800-mark.

An AQI between 0-50 is considered "good", 51-100 "satisfactory", 101-200 "moderate", 201-300 "poor", 301-400 "very poor", and 401-500 "severe". Above 500 is the "severe-plus or emergency" category.

BCCL

The air quality in and around Delhi began showing signs of improving on Monday after the wind speeds picked up.

The winds which were gusting up to 20 kilometres per hour helped in dispersing pollutants faster and reduced the noxious haze that obscured Delhi's skies for around a week. It has also helped in improving the visibility level to 2,000 metres.

AFP

That is not all, there is more good news for Delhiites who were hit by the worst dip in air quality in years - there are more winds predicted, which will further improve the air quality.

Weather experts said a significant increase in wind speed dispersed the pollutants faster. The cloud cover over Delhi and the neighbouring areas also dissipated, revealing the sun.

Kuldeep Srivastava, a senior scientist at the IMD, said, "The two main reasons for the improvement in air quality are increased wind speed and no cloud cover."

BCCL

Though there was a significant, visible change in pollution levels on Monday, the national capital's air quality index (AQI) at 4 pm read 416, which is still in the 'severe' category, according to the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB).

CPCB's former director Dipankar Saha said this is because the air quality index reading at any given time is an average of AQIs recorded in the previous 24 hours.

Mahesh Palawat of Skymet Weather, a private forecaster, said rainfall is likely in Delhi and neighbouring areas on November 6 and 7 under the influence of Cyclone Maha.

BCCL

Another factor that has contributed to the improvement in air quality is the odd-even traffic restrictions which began on Monday. The restrictions will continue till next week and any given day almost half of the private vehicles in the national capital will be off the roads.