Air quality in Delhi hits 'severe'; Likely to deteriorate in coming days

New Delhi, Dec 23: The air quality in the national capital on Wednesday plunged into the severe category with a count of 404 in the early hours. Noida is even worse with the PM 10 count at 582 and PM 2.5 count of 511, much higher than Delhi.

Currently, the PM 10 count is at 435 in the severe category and is only expected to deteriorate in the coming days of the week. It will cross the 500-mark during the day and worsen in the following couple of days, going up to the 522-mark.

The PM 2.5 count is also in the very poor category at 247 and will worsen to cross the 300-mark in the coming days.

As per Safar India, AQI is forecasted to further deteriorate in Delhi to the higher end of the very poor category by Wednesday and Thursday and quite a few regions may even experience severe AQI for a shorter time period, especially during the early morning.

It can be seen that the overall air quality has deteriorated to the higher end of the very poor category as forecasted. Surface-level winds are low and Westerly. Surface winds are likely to further slow down and surface inversion is likely to form.

On Tuesday, AQI was in the severe category at several places. It was 527 at Patparganj, 522 in Sriniwaspuri, 528 in Noida, 575 in Faridabad, 547 in Anand Vihar, and 399 at Mandir Marg, which was the best reading in the city.