NEW DELHI, Dec 23: Delhi woke up to hazardous air conditions on Tuesday as thick fog and haze enveloped the city, pushing air quality into the ‘severe’ and ‘severe plus’ categories across most monitoring stations and exposing residents to extremely unhealthy pollution levels.
According to data from the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB), the city’s overall Air Quality Index (AQI) stood at 415 at 9 am, deteriorating sharply from the ‘very poor’ category recorded a day earlier.
Out of 40 air quality monitoring stations in the national capital, 27 recorded AQI readings above 400, placing them in the ‘severe’ category a level associated with serious health risks even for healthy individuals.
Five stations slipped into the ‘severe plus’ range with AQI readings exceeding 450. Anand Vihar recorded the highest AQI at 470, followed by Nehru Nagar (463), Okhla (459), Mundka (459) and Sirifort (450), according to the CPCB’s SAMEER app.
Under CPCB standards, an AQI of 0–50 is classified as ‘good’, 51–100 ‘satisfactory’, 101–200 ‘moderate’, 201–300 ‘poor’, 301–400 ‘very poor’, and 401–500 ‘severe’.
Weather conditions further aggravated pollution levels, with dense fog significantly reducing visibility during the morning hours. At 8 am, Palam recorded visibility as low as 50 metres under dense fog conditions, with west-southwesterly winds blowing at 5 kmph, while Safdarjung reported 100 metres visibility with calm winds.
Visibility improved marginally by 8.30 am, with Palam recording 100 metres and Safdarjung 150 metres, though dense fog persisted across large parts of the city.
The India Meteorological Department (IMD) said Delhi’s minimum temperature settled at 8.8 degrees Celsius, 1.3 degrees above the seasonal average. The maximum temperature is expected to hover around 23 degrees Celsius, with dense fog likely to prevail during the day.