MUMBAI: Air pollution levels in the city dropped to "moderate" levels on Friday, showed the real-time data recorded by System of Air Quality and Weather Forecasting and Research (SAFAR). The overall Air Quality Index (AQI) for the city was pegged at 187.
Throughout at the start of 2016, the AQI has been in the "poor" and the "very poor" categories, which is beyond 200. AQI uses the 24-hour averages of pollutants, including sulphur dioxide, nitrogen oxide, carbon monoxide, ozone (O3) and particulate matter.
Weathermen said that the drop in the pollution levels can be attributed to the change in wind patterns. "Pollution was higher in the last few days due low wind speed. This has changed now and the wind speed has picked up due to which the pollutants are being carried away," said an official from SAFAR.
The maximum temperatures in Mumbai fell further on Friday. As compared to Thursday where the maximum temperature was hovering around 29 degrees Celsius, on Friday the maximum temperatures at Colaba was 27.4 degrees and at Santacruz it was 27.8 degrees. The minimum temperatures recorded at Colaba was 19.8 degrees and 17.2 degrees at atSantcruz. The IMD forecast that minimum temperatures would hover around 17 degrees Celsius.
"The high temperatures were due to the anti-cyclonic circulation over central India," said an India Meteorological Department official.
