Delhi Chokes Less but Freezes More: AQI Eases to ‘Poor’ as Mercury Falls to 5.7°C

Delhi’s air quality dipped again on Monday morning but remained in the ‘poor’ category, with the overall Air Quality Index (AQI) touching 300 — slightly worse than Sunday’s reading of around 279.

The marginal deterioration comes a day after Delhi saw its first break in a 24-day spell of ‘very poor’ air, thanks to strong northwesterly winds that cleared skies across the capital and neighbouring cities including Noida, Ghaziabad, Gurugram and Faridabad.

Delhi AQI and weather: Key updates

• Delhi AQI today:
As of 8:05 am, the city’s overall AQI stood at 300 (‘poor’). Twenty-three of the 38 monitoring stations on the Central Pollution Control Board’s Sameer app reported ‘very poor’ air.
The CPCB defines AQI 0–50 as ‘good’, 51–100 ‘satisfactory’, 101–200 ‘moderate’, 201–300 ‘poor’, 301–400 ‘very poor’, and 401–500 ‘severe’.

• Worst and best locations:
Nehru Nagar recorded the highest pollution level with an AQI of 354. Other severely impacted areas included Rohini (343), Bawana (339), RK Puram (338), Mundka (330), Punjabi Bagh (329), Anand Vihar (327), Wazirpur (325), Shadipur (324) and Jahangirpuri (321).
NSIT Dwarka reported the best air quality with an AQI of 202.

• Why Sunday’s skies cleared:
Experts attributed Sunday’s improvement to strong northwesterly winds that helped disperse pollutants across Delhi, Punjab and Haryana. Wind speeds of 10–15 km/hr continued through Saturday and Sunday without night-time stagnation, aiding cleanup of pollutants that had built up over the past three weeks.

• Temperature plunges:
Delhi also witnessed a sharp drop in temperature. Safdarjung recorded a minimum of 5.7°C on Monday — 4.6°C below normal — marking the coldest temperature of the season and the lowest November reading since at least 2022.
Last Wednesday, Delhi had recorded its previous low of 8°C, which was already the coldest November minimum in three years.