Delhi’s Air Quality Declines as Temperature Drops

Despite a drop in temperature over the past two days, Delhi’s air quality has gotten worse, with an average 24-hour air quality index (AQI) of 337 (very poor) at 10 am. At Monday’s 4pm bulletin, the average AQI was 317, which is very poor, and 314, which is very poor, the day before.

A day after it dropped to the lowest temperature of the season on Monday, Delhi recorded a minimum temperature of 6.8°C, three degrees below normal. According to the India Meteorological Department (IMD), cold north-westerly winds are likely to persist, with the minimum temperature expected to stay between 6-7°C for the next three days.

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The last four days have seen a three-degree drop in the temperature. Sunday’s minimum temperature in Delhi was 8.3°C, Saturday’s was 8.5°C, and Friday’s was 9.2°C.

Meteorological conditions were not expected to change significantly anytime soon, according to Kuldeep Srivastava, an IMD scientist. The wind is blowing from the northwest. The temperature is gradually dropping due to these cool winds, which is typical for this time of year. The mercury drops more when there are prolonged north-westerly winds.

On Monday, the highest temperature rose to 24.8°C. A day earlier, it was 23.4°C. It was predicted that the high would be in the neighbourhood of 25°C. For the remainder of the week, a dip to 23–24°C was predicted. It was likely that the minimum temperature would fluctuate between 6 and 7°C.

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In comparison to the same period in the previous five years, Delhi had the cleanest air during the first ten days of December, according to the Commission for Air Quality Management (CAQM) in the National Capital Region, which released its report on Monday. In contrast to the same period in the previous five years, Delhi has not reported a single day of extremely poor air quality during this period of 2023, according to a post on X by CAQM.

The air quality was not expected to significantly improve, and it is expected to stay in the extremely poor category through December 14. For the next six days, the air quality is most likely to fall between the very poor and poor categories.