Delhi air quality to worsen today
New Delhi, May 09: Delhi's air quality nosedived to 'very poor' on Wednesday and is expected to deteriorate further to 'severe' category due to dust storm in northwest India, the Centre-run SAFAR said.
According
to
the
System
of
Air
Quality
and
Weather
Forecasting
and
Research
(SAFAR),
the
air
quality
index
(AQI)
was
at
341
on
Wednesday
which
falls
in
'very
poor'
category.
An
AQI
between
0
and
50
is
considered
'good',
51
and
100
'satisfactory',
101
and
200
'moderate',
201
and
300
'poor',
301
and
400
'very
poor',
and
401
and
500
'severe'.
According to the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB), the AQI in the national capital was recorded at 339.
Gufran Beig, an scientist at SAFAR, said whole of northwest Indian, including north Gujarat, Rajasthan, parts of Uttar Pradesh, Haryana and Delhi are going to be in the grip of dust storm from tonight.
As Delhi struggles to breathe, 93% residents don't know what AQI means
"As the storm dust is now arrested in Delhi and combining with local dust lifting, further deterioration of air quality is expected for today and tomorrow. Air quality is predicted to touch severe category late tonight and will continue to be so till May 10," he said.
Beig said the "origin of the current episode" is widespread dust from dry arid west Rajasthan region due to high temperature and favourable wind speed.
"Most of the northwest region is going to have very poor to sever air quality during next two days (till May 10). After that, Delhi's air quality is expected to improve due to western disturbance and thunderstorm. But occasional episodes of sudden peaking of dust at isolated places in Delhi cannot be ruled out," he said.