Capital’s ‘severe’ AQI streak ends, back to ‘very poor’

New Delhi: Delhi’s three-day streak of ‘severe’ air quality ended on Friday, with the city’s overall AQI settling at 387 in the ‘very poor’ category, according to the Central Pollution Control Board’s (CPCB) 4 pm bulletin.

Despite the respite, the national capital’s monitoring stations continued to record toxic air, with 12 stations in the ‘severe’ category and 24 in the ‘very poor’ range out of the 37 stations monitored on Friday.

Wazirpur reported the day’s highest AQI at 433, followed by Bawana at 429, according to the CPCB’s Sameer app.

According to the CPCB, an AQI between 0 and 50 is considered good, 51-100 satisfactory, 101-200 moderate, 201-300 poor, 301-400 very poor, and 401-500 severe. Tiny airborne particles — PM10 and PM2.5, referring to particulate matter measuring ten micrometres and 2.5 micrometres, respectively — remained the dominant pollutants.

Meanwhile, according to the DSS, stubble burning contributed 8.5 per cent to Delhi’s pollution on Friday, while transport emissions accounted for 19.8 per cent, the highest share of all sources.

The forecast suggests that the stubble-burning contribution will rise to 16.3 per cent on Saturday.

Satellite data detected 72 farm fire incidents in Punjab, 15 in Haryana and 293 in Uttar Pradesh on Thursday.

On the weather front, the city recorded a maximum temperature of 26.4 degrees Celsius, 2.1 degrees below normal, and a minimum temperature of 10.2 degrees Celsius, 3.3 degrees below normal, according to the IMD.

The relative humidity stood at 80 per cent in the morning and 61 per cent in the evening.

The forecast for Saturday indicates shallow fog, with temperatures expected to settle around 28 degrees Celsius (maximum) and 10 degrees Celsius (minimum).