Delhi's air quality remained poor; minimum temperature above normal
What's the story
Delhi's air quality remained poor on Friday with an Air Quality Index (AQI) of 223 at 8:00am. The Central Pollution Control Board categorizes an AQI between 201 and 300 as poor. Out of the 57 monitoring stations across Delhi, only 19 recorded moderate air quality while the rest were in the bad category.
Weather forecast
Air quality to remain poor till October 25
The Air Quality Early Warning System has predicted that Delhi's air quality will remain poor till October 25. The weather forecast for the next six days also does not indicate any immediate improvement.
Meanwhile, the India Meteorological Department (IMD) recorded a minimum temperature of 19°C at Safdarjung, Delhi's base meteorological station. This is 1.8°C above the seasonal normal.
Temperature report
Minimum temperatures recorded at various stations
Other weather stations in Delhi also recorded above-normal minimum temperatures.
The Ridge station recorded a low of 19.2°C, 0.7°C above normal, while Lodi Road recorded 18.6°C, which is 2.6°C above normal.
Ayanagar recorded a minimum temperature of 19.1°C, which is 1.9°C above normal, and Palam had the lowest minimum temperature at 18.3°C, slightly above average by 0.5 degrees Celsius.
On Thursday, stubble burning contributed an estimated 7.4% to PM2.5 concentration in the city, which increased to 15.9% on Friday.
Pollution sources
Transport sector contributes to pollution levels
Satellite monitoring detected 114 paddy residue-burning events across six states on Thursday, with Punjab accounting for the highest number of incidents at 36.
The transport sector was also a major contributor to Delhi's pollution, accounting for 17.32% of estimated concentration levels according to the Decision Support System for Air Quality Management in Delhi developed by the Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorology (IITM), Pune.