Last update: July 31, 2022, 21:58 IST
NEW DELHI: A pedestrian escapes monsoon rains in New Delhi on Monday, July 11, 2022. (PTI photo)
Only July 2020 was better with an average AQI of 84 as the city recorded a significant drop in pollution levels this year due to a strict lockdown to prevent the spread of Covid.
Due to the extra rain, Delhi recorded 24 “satisfactory” air quality days this month, making it the cleanest July for the city since 2015 when the Central Pollution Control Board started maintaining AQI data. The average air quality index this July was 87. Only July 2020 was better with an average AQI of 84 — the city recorded a significant drop in pollution levels this year due to a strict lockdown to prevent the spread of Covid.
Delhi recorded 25 ‘satisfactory’, four ‘moderate’ and two ‘poor’ air quality days in July 2020. An air quality index (AQI) between zero and 50 is considered “good”, 51 and 100 “satisfactory”, 101 and 200. “moderate”, 201 and 300 “poor”, 301 and 400 “very poor”, and 401 and 500 “severe”.
The capital did not record a single poor, very poor or severe air quality day this July. The city recorded an average AQI of 100 in 2021. 134 in 2019; 104 in 2018; 100 in 2017; 144 in 2016 and 138 in 2015, according to CPCB data.
The primary weather station at Safdarjung Observatory, Delhi, recorded 19 days of rain, the highest in at least a decade, and recorded 286.3 mm of rainfall this month against the normal of 209.7 mm. In total, the city has received 310.8 mm of rainfall against the normal of 283.8 mm since the monsoon season began on June 1.
Delhi also recorded a drop in maximum temperature this month due to extra rainfall. The average maximum temperature was 35.36 degrees Celsius, the lowest since 2017.
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