Delhi’s AQI eases to 304, but air remains in very poor range

Delhi’s air quality index stood at 304 on Tuesday, a marginal improvement from Monday’s 24-hour average of 344 but still in the “very poor” category.

PM2.5 was the leading pollutant at 51 of the city’s 57 monitoring stations at 9am. Twenty-nine stations recorded air quality in the “poor” range, while Sri Aurobindo Marg and Delhi Cantonment were among the cleaner locations, with AQI readings of 161 and 170 respectively. The Central Pollution Control Board defines an AQI of 301-400 as “very poor”.

Morning visibility improved at Delhi’s airport weather stations. Safdarjung recorded visibility of 1,000 metres at 8am, compared with 100 metres on Monday, when dense fog was reported. Its lowest visibility on Tuesday was 500 metres at 6.30am. At Palam, visibility improved to 800 metres from 600 metres a day earlier.

Safdarjung’s minimum temperature was 15.7°C, 1.4 degrees above the seasonal normal. No rainfall was recorded at Delhi’s five IMD weather stations in the 24 hours ending 8.30am Tuesday.