November pain: Air quality severe in parts of Delhi

North Delhi’s Jahangirpuri was the most polluted wi­th an AQI of 462

NEW DELHI: The city's air quality index read 350 at 4pm Tuesday - sliding further within the very poor category since Monday - while at least eight areas slipped into severe air quality. Monitoring agencies expect the rest of the city to deteriorate to severe air quality soon.North Delhi's Jahangirpuri was the most polluted with an AQI of 462, followed by Alipur (430), Bawana (421), DTU (445), Mundka (422), North Campus (405), Punjabi Bagh (449), and Vivek Vihar (425). Safdarjung, the base station, recorded very poor air quality.The share of stubble burning emissions from neighbouring states in Delhi's polluted air has increased, the Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorology has said.

The decision support system's models showed 8.5% share of stubble burning Monday, expected to spike to 15.5% Tuesday. This would almost equal vehicular pollution, which dominates the city's emission inventory.Weather adds to capital's air pollution woes IITM expects stubble burning contribution to rise to 20% by Nov 4 and 22% by Nov 5. The air quality is likely to be very poor or even severe in the next six days, IITM said.

Air quality continued to deteriorate in several parts of the city despite GRAP-II restrictions in place from Monday. Experts said weather unfavourable for dispersal of pollutants was the major reason behind the spike.

Temperatures were below normal in Delhi. The maximum at Safdarjung was 29.1 degrees Celsius, a notch below normal. The minimum was 16.4 degrees Celsius, a notch above normal. Met expects the maximum and minimum temperatures to hover between 27-29 and 14-16 degrees Celsius Wednesday.