Air Quality in Delhi continued to remain in the ‘severe’ category for the second consecutive day on Friday. It also revealed that the contribution of stubble burning to the National Capital’s PM 2.5 is 34 percent.

On Friday morning, Delhi’s total Air Quality Index (AQI) increased to 472, indicating that the city’s air quality remained in the “severe” category. According to the data released by SAFAR (System of Air Quality and Weather Forecasting And Research) the AQI of India, Gurugram stood at 539 and continued to be in the “severe” category while Noida, which is also part of the National Capital Region (NCR), recorded the AQI of 562, and continued to be in that category.

Today’s AQI of Noida is reported to be severe at 567.

Meanwhile, stubble burning in Delhi NCR increased to 34 percent on Thursday, the highest so far this season, according to the experts, who said that this was the cause of the National Capital’s thick blanket of smelly haze.

The AQI from 0 to 100 is considered as good while from 100 to 200 is moderate, from 200 to 300 is poor, and from 300 to 400 is said to be very poor and from 400 to 500 or above it is considered as severe.

People of Delhi-NCR, on Thursday, woke up with complaints of choking and ‘eye burning’ due to smog and air pollution leaving people gasping for breath.

The air quality in north Delhi was the poorest as almost all the stations in the region displayed AQI above 400.

Most of the stations in the Capital have the AQI above 300 with the exceptions of a few places like Mandir Marg in Central Delhi.

However, as per the forecast, the condition of air quality in Delhi and nearby regions will continue to stay “severe” and is expected to improve from November 5.

“Air quality is likely to remain within the ‘severe’ category today and likely to improve tomorrow to ‘lower end of severe’ and from 5th onwards air quality is likely to improve further to ‘very poor’ due to upper-level wind reversal that prevents inflow of stubble-related pollutants. Higher surface wind speed on 5th Nov is likely to disperse pollutants,” said a press release.