Strong winds improve Delhi air despite 'cold wave' effect

NEW DELHI: Strong winds over the past two days improved Delhi's air quality, from a "poor" air quality index (AQI) of 234 on Tuesday to a "moderate" AQI of 199 on Wednesday, according to the 24-hour average data shared by the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) in its daily bulletin at 4pm.

- HT Correspondent

This also marked the fifth "moderate" air day this month, making it one of the best starts to December, since CPCB started publishing daily AQI data in 2015. So far, three "moderate" days each were recorded in December 2022, 2019 and 2015.

To be sure, there has never been a "good" or "satisfactory" air day recorded in any December since 2015. The lowest AQI recorded in December is 140, which was on December 26, 2015. CPCB classifies AQI between 0 and 50 as "good", between 51 and 100 as "satisfactory", between 101 and 200 as "moderate", between 201 and 300 as "poor", between 301 and 400 as "very poor", and over 400 as "severe".