Noida: The city’s air quality improved to ‘moderate’ category on Saturday for the first time in 85 days. This was a significant improvement from 400+ AQI recorded earlier this week. Officials attributed the improvement to intermittent showers on Friday, and sustained winds that helped disperse smog.On Saturday, the AQI was recorded at 184, significantly better than 270 a day earlier. Greater Noida recorded an AQI of 170 compared to Friday’s 249. Ghaziabad also saw improvement, but AQI remained in the lower edge of ‘poor’ category at 203 for the second day. On Friday, Ghaziabad recorded 278.Station-wise, Sector 1 (194), Sector 116 (186) and Sector 62 (172) in Noida were all in the moderate level, while data from Sector 125 was unavailable. In Greater Noida, Knowledge Park V recorded an AQI of 185 and Knowledge Park III 154, both in the moderate category.In Ghaziabad, Sanjay Nagar recorded 138, placing it in the moderate category, while Loni (227), Vasundhara (226) and Indirapuram (221) remained in the poor range.The last time when the three cities recorded moderate air quality was on Oct 31 last year—Noida recorded 163, Greater Noida 116 and Ghaziabad 177—before deteriorating to hazardous levels until Jan.Between Nov 1 and Jan 23, Noida saw 16 ‘poor’ AQI days, 52 ‘very poor’ days, and 16 ‘severe’ days. Greater Noida saw 22 ‘poor’ days, 51 ‘very poor’ days, and 10 ‘severe’ days, with one moderate day on Nov 5. Ghaziabad air quality was hazardous for much of the period, with 19 ‘poor’ days, 50 ‘very poor’ days and 16 ‘severe’ days. Delhi recorded a sharp improvement in air quality on Saturday, with the AQI touching 192 at 4pm — the cleanest the capital has seen in 102 days. The last moderate reading was on Oct 13 last year, when the AQI stood at 189.The improvement began on Friday under the influence of rain and gusty winds, though the day’s average AQI remained poor at 282. On Saturday, winds blew from the northwest at speeds of under 20 kmph in the afternoon, easing to around 12 kmph by evening and night, officials said.According to Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorology’s (IITM) Air Quality Early Warning System, the AQI is expected to slip back to the poor category on Sunday.On Sunday, the city is expected to see a partly cloudy sky with shallow to moderate fog in the morning. Northwest winds are likely to remain below 15 kmph early in the day, dropping to about 10 kmph in the afternoon and further to around 8 kmph by evening and night.
