At last! Chennai has managed to blow away the offending pollutants with a flare of its nostrils, after weather-friendly easterly to north-easterly winds wrested back their position under the November sun. Yes, the Air Quality Index as assessed by the Central and the Tamil Nadu State Pollution Control Boards was at satisfactory levels after wallowing in the moderate to poor to very poor category for more than a week.
This is the standard template maintained by the Central Pollution Control Board:
And, if one were to look at the indices as they read at 8 am this Tuesday, they have all returned to the green after being in the orange (moderate) or red (poor) level.
READ | Chennai and Tamil Nadu Weather: Tuesday, November 12
At Alandur Bus Depot, the index came in at 90, which is a satisfactory count of particulate matter less than 2.5 microns (PM2.5). It was at 249 on Sunday morning.
At Velachery Residential Area, the PM2.5 level read at 69 (satisfactory). Velachery had a score of 254 on Sunday.
At Manali Village, too, the reading was satisfactory at 87, though slightly poorer in than at Velachery. It stood at 185 on Sunday.
However, yet gain, there is no data available for Manali in Chennai, the usual suspect for low air quality levels.
Weather models show that the seasonal easterlies to north-easterly winds have taken over the Chennai and Tamil Nadu skies.
In doing so, they are warding off any threat of pollutants wafting in from North India, as was being alleged when easterly to north-easterly winds had taken a break over Chennai and Tamil Nadu, allowing the pollutants in.
In fact, Windy.com showed that the winds are southerlies (from South to North) from North of Chennai, scaring away the northerly wind regime flowing in from upcountry.
All this is playing out this Tuesday morning, when the air quality index in Delhi and the National Capital Region has worsened again to the severe level, (beyond 400).
Naturally, Chennai’s bloggers and Twitterati are pleased and finally got to put out some happy and contented tweets throughout the day on Monday, when blue skies dawned after a week. Here are a few: