Delhi wakes up to clear sky, likely to become cloudy later: IMD

Residents of the national capital woke up to a clear sky on Tuesday which is likely to become partly cloudy towards the afternoon or evening, according to a forecast by the India Meteorological Department (IMD.

This week will swing between clear and partly cloudy sky.

The IMD has pegged the maximum temperature at 30 degrees Celsius and minimum at 15 degrees for the day. The relative humidity at 8.30 a.m. was recorded at 87 per cent.

On Monday, the maximum temperature stood at 31 degrees Celsius and minimum at 14.5 degrees. The relative humidity at 5.30 p.m. was 57 per cent.


On the air quality front, Delhi's AQI continues to stand under 'very poor' category with the level of PM 2.5 and PM 10 pollutants being recorded at 128 and 256, respectively.

The overall AQI of the city is 306, System of Air Quality and Weather Forecasting And Research (SAFAR) stated.

"Delhi's AQI is in the very poor category and likely to improve to upper end of poor for the next two days due to prevailing winds coming from west/south-west direction reducing transport of emissions from stubble burning. Share of crop residue burning emissions in PM2.5 is low, about 7 per cent (Effective fire count 3,971) due to unfavourable winds for transport. Prevailing shallow mixing layer height reduces dispersion of pollutants," it further stated.


Delhi's air quality is likely to deteriorate "significantly" on Friday and Saturday and might reach the upper end of the 'Very Poor' category with PM2.5 being the predominant pollutant, Ministry of Earth Sciences forecasted on Monday.

"From Thursday onwards, the wind direction will change from the present easterly to north-westerly which are highly favourable to the intrusion of stubble burning," SAFAR founder and project director Gufran Beig told IANS.

"Even if 50 per cent of the firecrackers bursted in 2020 happen to be lit this Diwali, then the air quality will deteriorate to 'severe', and without crackers the air quality will settle at upper end of 'very poor' on November 5 and 6," he added - IANS