New Delhi: Delhi's air quality slipped into the "very poor" category on Sunday as the mercury dropped to 15.8 degrees Celsius, the lowest recorded in October in the last two years.
The city registered an Air Quality Index (AQI) of 324, which falls in the "very poor" category, compared to 292 a day earlier. The AQI had been "poor" the past two days.
Delhi's Anand Vihar recorded "severe" AQI with a reading of 429, followed by Wazirpur with 400. As many as 28 monitoring stations across the city reported "very poor" air quality with readings above 300, according to data from the Sameer app of the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB).
As per the CPCB, an AQI between zero and 50 is considered "good", 51 to 100 "satisfactory", 101 to 200 "moderate", 201 to 300 "poor", 301 to 400 "very poor", and 401 to 500 "severe".
The minimum temperature settled at 15.8 degrees Celsius, 1.4 notches below normal, according to the India Meteorological Department (IMD). In October 2023, the minimum temperature had dipped to 15.9 degrees Celsius.
Delhi's humidity stood at 66 per cent at 8.30 am.
The maximum temperature is likely to settle around 30 degrees Celsius, with the IMD forecasting a mainly clear sky, becoming partly cloudy towards the evening or night.