Thick smog covered the Noida sky on Saturday morning with the overall air quality kept in the ‘severe’ category. Greater Noida, Noida and Ghaziabad experienced the worst pollution levels this season on Friday as the air quality index (AQI) reached the ‘severe’ category.
Noida and Bulandshahr remained the two most polluted cities in the country. The pollution level in both cities reached 488 on Friday. The air quality also deteriorates in Uttar Pradesh’s Moradabad district as thick smog covered the sky on Saturday. The overall air quality in Moradabad is in the ‘severe’ category.
Besides Noida, the air quality of all the remaining NCR cities including Delhi also reached a near dangerous level. Four factors led to the air reaching a dangerous level. Due to low temperature, the mixing height reached less than one kilometer.
Thick smog covers Noida sky; Overall air quality in ‘severe’ category
(Data source: SAFAR- India) pic.twitter.com/9ZYm0QsHhO
— ANI UP (@ANINewsUP) November 13, 2021
At the same time, the surface winds also remained stagnant. The combined effect of the two narrowed the ventilation index. Along with this, the smoke from stubble burning also had a profound effect. SAFAR has forecasted that for the next two days, there is no sign of the pollution going away. During this period, pollution levels in Delhi and NCR cities are expected to remain above 450.
Smoke due to stubble-burning contributed to about 35% of Delhi’s pollution levels. Due to the four factors, the winds of Delhi-NCR remained stifling throughout the day.
An AQI between zero and 50 is considered ‘good’, 51 and 100 ‘satisfactory’, 101 and 200 ‘moderate’, 201 and 300 ‘poor’, 301 and 400 ‘very poor’, and 401 and 500 ‘severe’.
