Delhi’s air quality sees slight improvement as rains lash city, AQI in ’poor’ category

As rains hit the national capital, Delhi witnessed a slight improvement in the air quality with recording an AQI of 286 at 7:00 am which lies in ‘poor’ category, as per Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) data. This comes a day after the city secured second place in the top 10 most polluted cities across India.

The AQI is expected to improve further as the Indian Meteorological Department (IMD) has said that national capital Delhi will witness thunderstorm with rainfall today i.e. on 1 February. The areas where rainfall is expected today include Noida, Ghaziabad, Loni Dehat, Bahadurgarh, Indirapuram, Greater Noida, Dadri, Panipat, Jind, Gohana, Sonipat, Rohtak, Bhiwani, Meerut, Jhajjar, Sambhal, etc

Also Read: Will rains bring respite from cold wave conditions in Delhi, NCR? IMD says...

Earlier on Wednesday, areas including RK Puram, Safdarjung, INA market, Sarai Kale Khan, and Lodhi colony in Delhi witnessed heavy downpour. 

Also Read: Delhi rains alert! IMD predicts thunderstorm, downpour in THESE areas in next 2 hours. See full forecast

As per CPCB data, Pusa recorded AQI at 229, NSIT Dwarka recorded 274 AQI, 207 at Lodhi Road, 252 at IGI Airport, 299 at Dwarka Sector-8, 277 at Aya Nagar. However, many places in the national capital still continued to witness ‘very poor’ air. As per CPCB data, Anand Vihar recorded AQI at 319, 350 AQI at ITO, 331 at Jahangirpuri, 304 at Narela, 319 at Punjabi Bagh, 307 at RK Puram, 324 at Rohini, 335 at Wazirpur.

An AQI between zero and 50 is considered 'good', 51 and 100 'satisfactory', 101 and 200 'moderate', 201 and 300 'poor', 301 and 400 'very poor', and 401 and 500 'severe'.

Speaking on Cold Wave conditions in the national capital, IMD has said that no cold wave conditions are expected in Delhi, NCR over the next five days, despite the rains that have lashed since January 31. The city's normal temperature is recorded at 11 degrees Celsius on Thursday morning. 

Weather fluctuations are expected to continue till February 3 because of western disturbance with further changes anticipated from thereon, a senior official said.