City sees lowest temp of season; air quality 'very poor', likely to worsen in next 2 days

New Delhi: Delhi recorded a minimum temperature of 13.4 degrees Celsius, the lowest this season so far, on Wednesday and it is likely to dip to 11 degrees Celsius in a week, according to the India Meteorological Department.

The maximum temperature settled at 29.6 degrees Celsius.

Strong winds lowered pollution levels marginally and the 24-hourly average air quality index stood at 372 at 4 pm. Stubble burning accounted for 27 per cent of the air pollution in the Capital.

The Ministry of Earth Sciences' forecast agency SAFAR forecast that the air quality will deteriorate over the next two days and improve on November 13. Calm local surface winds may lead to stagnant conditions that weakens dispersion of pollutants, it said.

The air quality had slipped into the severe category on Tuesday and the 24-hourly average AQI stood at 404 at 4 pm. The share of farm fires in Delhi's pollution rose to a three-year high of 48 per cent on Sunday.

Mahesh Palawat, Vice President (Meteorology and Climate Change), Skymet Weather said the share of stubble burning in Delhi-NCR's air pollution is expected to remain high for another week.

"No major improvement in air quality is likely in the next four to five days," he said.

The first severe smog episode has hit Delhi and the National Capital Region (NCR) and is expected to last for another two days, green think-tank Centre for Science and Environment (CSE) said on Wednesday.

Even though the seasonal smog in Delhi is intense, the average daily contribution of smoke from farm fires from the middle of October to November 8 has been the lowest in last four years, it said.