Delhi-NCR woke up to a clear Thursday morning with the maximum temperature being pegged at 32 degrees Celsius and minimum at 19 degrees celsius for the day, according to the India Meteorological Department (IMD) data.

The relative humidity at 8.30 a.m. was 82 per cent. The maximum temperature recorded on Wednesday was 31.2 degrees Celsius.

Over the next six days, the maximum temperature in the city is likely to be 31 degree celsius and, the minimum may range between 18 to 20 degree celsius.

As for the air quality, it deteriorated to ‘poor’ on Thursday after a day of ‘good’ AQI. According to the System of Air Quality and Weather Forecasting And Research (SAFAR), the air quality monitoring and forecasting system under the Ministry of Earth Sciences, the level of PM2.5 and PM 10 pollutants stood at 91 (moderate) and 171 (poor), respectively.

SAFAR has attributed mixing layer height, local wind speed, ventilation factor, stubble burning impact, external dust intrusion to the air quality today. Delhi’s AQI is in the poor category.

“Fire count is 746 and its share in PM2.5 is 12 per cent. Fire emission from the upwind region enhances PM2.5 concentration as winds at transport level are from the northwest region. Stubble-burning share is likely to increase in the next two days if there is no rain. The overall AQI is likely to further degrade to the higher end of poor for the next three days,” it stated.

Overall AQI of Delhi at 9.00 a.m. stood at 201 with ITO, Pusa Institute, IIT-Delhi, and Delhi University categorized under ‘poor’ and Noida and T3 under ‘moderate’.

The rainfall this week had improved Delhi-NCR’s AQI to ‘good’ on Monday and ‘satisfactory’ on Tuesday.

“Stubble-burning share is likely to increase in the next two days if there is no rain. The overall AQI is likely to further degrade to the higher end of poor for the next three days,” SAFAR said in its bulletin.

An AQI between 0-50 is marked good, 51-100 is satisfactory, 101-200 is moderate, 201- 300 is poor, 301-400 is very poor and 401-500 is considered severe.

Meanwhile, Delhi Government has started the ‘Red Light On, Gaadi Off’ campaign from October 18 with an aim to tackle air pollution, and the first phase of the campaign will run till November 18.

(With IANS inputs)