Delhi woke up shrouded in fog, with little visibility and ‘very poor’ air.
The India Meteorological Department (IMD) issued an orange alert for dense fog between 8.30 am and 10 am.
Visibility was recorded at 50 metres at both Palam and Safdarjung at 6.30 am, the weather office said. The national capital recorded a 24-hour average Air Quality Index (AQI) of 384, according to data from the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB).
A station-wise breakdown showed that 21 monitoring stations recorded ‘very poor’ air quality, while 16 stations were in the ‘severe’ category, with Anand Vihar registering the worst AQI at 452, according to data from the CPCB’s SAMEER app.
According to CPCB classification, an AQI between 0 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 outlook remains grim, the Air Quality Early Warning System said, with the AQI likely to deteriorate to the ‘severe’ category on January 1, before letting up to the ‘very poor’ category on January 2.