Delhi woke up to a mixed bag of relief and discomfort on Monday as the city’s air quality showed marginal improvement while temperatures plunged to their lowest of the season. The Air Quality Index (AQI) at 8:05 am stood at 300, placing it in the ‘poor’ category slightly worse than Sunday’s 279 but still a notable shift from the 24-day streak of ‘very poor’ air that suffocated the region.
On Sunday, strong northwesterly winds swept through Delhi, Noida, Ghaziabad, Gurugram, and Faridabad, dispersing accumulated pollutants and offering the first clear skies residents had seen in weeks. According to experts, consistent wind flow at 10–15 km/hr from Saturday afternoon helped break the long-standing stagnation responsible for the heavy smog blanket. This change allowed pollutant levels to drop enough for the city to temporarily escape the ‘very poor’ bracket.
Data from the Central Pollution Control Board revealed significant variation across monitoring stations. Nehru Nagar was the city’s worst-performing location with an AQI of 354, followed by Rohini, Bawana, RK Puram, and Punjabi Bagh. In contrast, NSIT Dwarka recorded the day’s best reading at 202.
Even as the air improved slightly, the cold intensified. Delhi’s Safdarjung station logged a minimum temperature of 5.7 degrees Celsius 4.6 degrees below normal and the lowest for this season, as well as the coldest November reading since 2022. Just days earlier, the city had recorded another sharp dip at 8 degrees Celsius, signaling an early and aggressive onset of winter.
With clearer skies but biting cold, Delhi now stands at the intersection of environmental relief and seasonal discomfort, as residents brace for fluctuating pollution and plunging temperatures in the days ahead.
