Delhi Air Pollution: AQI won't budge, still 'severe'

NEW DELHI: The air in the city remained in the pollution category of 'severe' for the fifth day in a row with an AQI of 421 on Monday, slightly lower than 468 a day earlier. The stubble burning counts also remained high for the second day in a row with 2,060 reported from Punjab.Though visibility improved on Monday, relief from the toxic air is unlikely until at least November 9. Till then, the AQI is predicted to remain at the 'severe' level. The neighbourhood was no cleaner with Bhiwadi in Rajasthan the most polluted in the country with an AQI of 433. Faridabad recorded an AQI of 412, Greater Noida 420, Ghaziabad 391, Noida 384 and Gurgaon, 373.Track the pollution level in your cityCalm winds, low temperature and low mixing layer height combined to hamper the process of dispersion of pollutants. On Monday, the lowest minimum temperature of the season was logged at 13.5 degrees Celsius, two degrees below normal, at the base weather station at Safdarjung."While Safdarjung saw calm wind conditions from Monday night to Tuesday morning, there were light 3-4 kmph winds during the day. At Palam, wind conditions were calm in the morning, but windspeed rose to 7-8 kmph later," informed Kuldeep Srivastava, scientist and head, Regional Weather Forecasting Centre, India Meteorological Department.Srivastava said that windspeed is likely to increase from Tuesday. "Winds are likely to blow at 8-10kmph from Tuesday and touch 15kmph by November 11," he said.The wind direction changed from north-westerly to south-easterly and the maximum temperature rose marginally to 31.5 degrees Celsius, rendering better visibility on Monday. Palam recorded moderate fog at 7am with a visibility of 400 metres, while Safdarjung saw shallow fog with visibility of 700 metres. However, the visibility at Palam and Safdarjung during the day went up, respectively, to 1,800 and 1,100 metres later.The share of stubble burning in the air pollution was estimated at 26.30% on Monday. The fire count in Punjab was 2,060, a decline from the season high figure of 3,230 on Sunday. Haryana and Uttar Pradesh reported 65 and 87 paddy residue burning. The highest per day count recorded in 2022 was 3,916 on November 11 in Punjab. Experts said the stubble burning season in north-west India is expected to continue till November 15.According to the Air Quality Early Warning System for Delhi, the city air is likely to remain in the 'severe' category till November 9 and perhaps continue in that category for the subsequent six days.TOI reported on Monday that the longest streak of consecutive severely polluted air days was in the making. The previous such streaks lasted seven days each in November 2016 and 2017.