Delhi air quality was in the ‘poor’ category on Friday morning, with the city’s average Air Quality Index (AQI) reaching 225 at 9 am as a layer of smog hung over the capital, according to official data cited by Millennium Post.
The Central Pollution Control Board’s SAMEER application showed that 38 monitoring stations recorded ‘poor’ air quality, while 18 stations remained in the ‘moderate’ category. The AQI reading places Delhi within the 201-300 band, which the CPCB classifies as ‘poor’.
Several monitoring locations recorded readings close to the ‘very poor’ range. Pusa reported the highest AQI among the listed stations at 290, followed by RK Puram at 284 and Rohini at 279. Narela recorded an AQI of 272, while Mathura Road and Dwarka both reported readings of 268.
Other readings included 240 at North Campus of Delhi University, 228 at the Terminal 3 station of Indira Gandhi International Airport and 216 at Anand Vihar. Under the CPCB’s scale, AQI readings between 301 and 400 are classified as ‘very poor’, while readings from 401 to 500 fall in the ‘severe’ category.
The poor air quality was recorded alongside an above-normal minimum temperature. Safdarjung, the city’s base weather station, recorded a minimum temperature of 19 degrees Celsius, which was 1.8 degrees above normal. Palam recorded the lowest minimum temperature among the listed stations at 18.3 degrees Celsius, or 0.5 degrees above normal.
Lodhi Road recorded a minimum temperature of 18.6 degrees Celsius, 2.6 degrees above normal. Ayanagar and the Ridge recorded minimum temperatures of 19.1 degrees Celsius and 19.2 degrees Celsius, respectively.
The India Meteorological Department said the maximum temperature was expected to settle around 32 degrees Celsius, with mainly clear skies during the day. The weather conditions and station-level pollution readings indicate that air quality varied across the capital, with several localities recording significantly higher AQI levels than the city average.
The CPCB’s AQI scale categorises readings from zero to 50 as ‘good’, 51 to 100 as ‘satisfactory’, 101 to 200 as ‘moderate’, 201 to 300 as ‘poor’, 301 to 400 as ‘very poor’ and 401 to 500 as ‘severe’.
