Heavy rains in the national capital on Sunday brought the mercury down with the maximum temperature settling at 31.5 degrees Celsius while some parts of the city witnessed waterlogging, officials said.
Taking to Twitter, the Delhi Traffic Police informed that the Mehrauli-Badarpur Road in south Delhi was closed due to waterlogging at Pul Prahladpur underpass and asked commuters to take alternate routes.
“Due to waterlogging at Pul Prahladpur underpass, MB road is closed. Please avoid this route. Kindly take alternate route MB Road-Maa Anandmai Marg towards Badarpur,” the Delhi Traffic Police tweeted.
Other places from where waterlogging was reported included Kirari, Rohtak Road, and Nangloi, civic officials said.
However, no major waterlogging was reported from anywhere, they added.
According to the India Meteorological Department, Delhi’s minimum temperature was 19 degrees Celsius, two notches above the season’s average.
The IMD has forecast an overcast sky on Monday with the maximum and minimum temperatures settling at 31 and 18 degrees Celsius respectively.
Meanwhile, Delhi’s air quality index (AQI) was in the moderate category at 135 at 9.45 pm, real-time data of the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) showed.
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”.
Delhi records moderate air quality
The air quality in the national capital was in the ‘moderate’ category on Sunday with scattered rainfall expected to slightly improve the condition the next day, authorities said.
According to real-time data of the Central Pollution Control Board, the air quality index (AQI) was 161 around 7 pm.
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’.
“Delhi’s AQI is in the moderate category. In the presence of local dry weather and south-westerly wind, local dust emission will enhance PM10. Additional dust input from desert areas via transport is very likely,” the Ministry of Earth Sciences’ forecast body SAFAR stated.
“With a change in the wind direction from south-westerly to north-westerly, AQI may change. Due to scattered rainfall, the AQI will improve slightly over the next 24 hours and then again degrade to moderate,” it said.
According to the SAFAR model, stubble burning effective fire count was 735 on Sunday and its share in PM2.5 was two per cent.
“Impact of fire emission will be low as wind is mainly south-westerly,” it said.
According to IITM-Pune’s Decision Support System, the air quality over Delhi-NCT is likely to remain in the ‘moderate’ to ‘satisfactory’ category on Monday and in the ‘moderate’ category on Tuesday and Wednesday.
“Most parts of Punjab received rainfall today. The air quality is likely to remain largely in the ‘moderate’ category for five days,” according to the Decision Support System.
Data from the Indian Agricultural Research Institute (IARI) shows, 885 residue-burning events were recorded in the six study states on Friday with 620 in Punjab, 218 in Haryana, eight in UP, zero in Delhi, seven in Rajasthan and 32 in Madhya Pradesh.
“The number of events has decreased from 1,288 on Thursday to 885 on Friday. A total of 8,675 burning events were detected in the six states between September 15 and October 23, which are distributed as 6,058, 1726, 642, zero, 52 and 197 in Punjab, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh, Delhi, Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh, respectively,” it said.
Overall, the total burning events recorded in the six states are 50.6 per cent less than the corresponding period in 2020, IARI said.
Punjab recorded a 56.4 per cent reduction in burning events, Haryana 10.6 per cent increase, UP 4.7 per cent curtailment, Delhi 100 per cent reduction, Rajasthan 87.4 per cent reduction and Madhya Pradesh 80.8 per cent reduction in the current season than in 2020, it said.
