Delhi's air quality remains 'poor' on Wednesday despite slight improvement

Delhi breathed a little easier on Wednesday as pollution levels dropped marginally; however, the air quality continued to stay in the "poor" range with an AQI of 279, according to the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB).

According to the 24-hour average recorded by the CPCB, the city's AQI stood at 279 on Wednesday, compared to 294 on Tuesday. On Monday, the AQI was 301, falling under the "very poor" category.

Despite the slight improvement, several parts of the national capital continued to record the highest pollution levels. Wazirpur (347), Vivek Vihar (339), Rohini (337) and Anand Vihar (331) were among the 19 of the city's 38 monitoring stations that reported AQI in the "very poor" range with readings above 300, data from the CPCB's Sameer app showed.

According to 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 Air Quality Early Warning System for Delhi has forecast that the city's air quality will remain in the "poor" category till October 31 and may deteriorate to "very poor" levels on November 1. The outlook for the subsequent six days indicates that the air quality is likely to fluctuate between the "poor" and "very poor" categories.

Meanwhile, the maximum temperature in the city dipped to 29 degrees Celsius, about 4.6 notches below the seasonal average, while the minimum settled at 18.2 degrees Celsius, according to the India Meteorological Department (IMD).

The IMD has predicted shallow fog for Thursday, with maximum and minimum temperatures expected to be around 30 degrees Celsius and 18 degrees Celsius, respectively.

The humidity level was recorded at 79 per cent at 5.30 pm.