Delhi’s air quality still in ‘severe’ category

The national capital witnessed a dip in pollution levels on Saturday morning even as the air quality in the city remained in the “severe” category. The air quality index (AQI) in Delhi at 8.40 am on Saturday stood at 412 against an AQI of 467 at 10 am on Friday. The AQI in Faridabad was 427, Ghaziabad 424, Greater Noida 377, Noida 411 and Gurgaon 420. An AQI between 201 and 300 is considered ‘poor’, 301-400 ‘very poor’ and 401-500 ‘severe’.The national capital recorded a minimum temperature of 16.1 degrees Celsius while humidity was 82 per cent. The weatherman has forecast mainly clear skies for the day with the maximum temperature likely to hover around 28 degrees Celsius. There is also a possibility of strong surface windsDelhi was blanketed by a thick smog for four consecutive days till Friday as unfavourable weather hampered dispersion of pollutants.On Friday, the air quality index in the stood at 463 at 4 pm, with Dwarka Sector 8 being the most-polluted area with an AQI of 495. Most of the air quality monitoring stations recorded an AQI above 450.