Delhi air quality shows minor improvement

A spell of strong winds lifted Delhi’s air quality to the ‘poor’ category on Sunday after the city spent most of November in the ‘very poor’ zone.

The average air quality index (AQI) at 4 p.m. was 279, down from 305 a day earlier. Delhi recorded its lowest January-November average AQI since 2018, barring the COVID-19 lockdown year of 2020, the Commission for Air Quality Management (CAQM) said on Sunday. The average AQI for the period this year was 187, compared to 201 in 2024, 190 in 2023, 199 in 2022, 197 in 2021, 172 in 2020, 203 in 2019 and 213 in 2018.

This year’s November was also the coolest in five years in Delhi with the average minimum temperature being 11.5 degrees Celsius, according to the India Meteorological Department.