This Weekend Delhi Breathed the Cleanest Air in Years

Delhi saw clean air all throughout the weekend. Credit: Sneha Verma

The clean air was not a figment of our imagination, but actual and factual truth. The notoriously polluted air in Delhi was green all the way this weekend. This gave a chance to Delhiites breathe the cleanest air they have in years after rains and continues drizzle brought down the PM levels to ‘good’ rankings.

According to SAFAR or System of Air Quality and Weather Forecasting and CPCB, the air quality index AQI was recorded at 47 which comes under the good category of Air quality. The PM 2.5 levels were at 17 and PM 10 level fell to 31 on Saturday.

An AQI between 51 and 100 is considered “satisfactory”, 101 and 200 “moderate”, 201 and 300 “poor”, 301 and 400 “very poor”, and 401 and 500 “severe”.

According to PTI report, Delhi-NCR has received widespread intermittent rainfall over the past few days. Delhi received 1.4 mm rainfall from 8.30 am to 5.30 pm on Saturday, while in 24 hours ending 8.30 am on Saturday it received 7.3 mm rainfall. Some parts of the city received rains on Friday and Thursday as well.

The real-time Air quality index called AQICN, shows that the Saturday recorded PM 2.5 levels dropping to just 5 which was again seen on Sunday in the first half of the day. The PM 10 levels too dropped. Saturday recorded the minimum level of 10 while Sunday showed an improvement and reached 5.

The fresh air was a welcome change as Delhi has been battling air pollution for many years. The change brought respite to the area which was facing heatwave since June and water scarcity at the same time.

However, for the forecast, the diminishing rains are expected bring the PM 2.5 and PM 10 levels to higher levels. We hope that with Haryana, Punjab and Uttar Pradesh showing signs of discouraging stubble burning, the winters too will see clear skies in and around Delhi.