Delhi Records Coolest October Night in Two Years as Air Quality Improves Slightly

Delhi recorded its coolest October night in two years on Thursday, with the minimum temperature dipping to 17°C, slightly below the seasonal average of 17.2°C.

The India Meteorological Department (IMD) said. The city also saw a marginal improvement in air quality, with the 24-hour average Air Quality Index (AQI) at 275, placing it in the ‘poor’ category after four days of ‘very poor’ readings. The day’s maximum temperature touched 32.3°C, 0.4°C above normal. For Saturday, morning mist is expected, with temperatures likely to range between 17°C and 31°C.

Anand Vihar recorded the highest AQI at 414 among Delhi’s 38 monitoring stations. Ten stations reported ‘very poor’ air quality, 24 were in the ‘poor’ category, and three registered ‘moderate’ levels, according to the CPCB’s Sameer app. Neighboring NCR cities such as Gurugram, Noida, and Ghaziabad also reported ‘poor’ AQI levels in the 200s.

The Centre’s Air Quality Early Warning System predicts that Delhi’s AQI may remain in the ‘very poor’ category until Saturday, before fluctuating between ‘poor’ and ‘very poor’ over the next week. Transport emissions contributed 17.8% to the city’s pollution on Thursday, while satellite imagery detected 28 stubble-burning incidents in Punjab and 13 in Uttar Pradesh.