Hazy weather conditions prevail in Amritsar because of smog, says PPCB

Early risers in the city are finding it tough to describe the daily weather phenomenon in the shape of thick haze cover, causing low visibility and a little cold, giving the impression of smog or fog. This weather phenomenon has been visible for the past couple of days.

Environmental engineers at the Punjab Pollution Control Board (PPCB) categorically stated that it is smog which is coming down in the morning and evening hours. Owing to cold in the morning and evening, it gives the impression of fog to the city dwellers, hinting that winter has set in with the early arrival of fog. But it is clearly smog which is not good for health. The fallout of the thick smog cover is that there has been no sunlight and only an overcast sky for the past nearly one week.

Vinod Kumar, Assistant Environmental Engineer of the PPCB, said low temperature at night was causing the smog to become dense and come down. He said this smog was harmful for human beings and they should avoid inhaling it. “All our hopes rest on wind velocity to disperse the pollutants gathered in the air and rain to clear the air in the immediate future. There is no other alternative but to wait for one of these two phenomenons to occur.”

Shashank Verma of the Meteorological Department said visibility has been found to be between 200 to 400 meters in the morning and evening. These days, humidity is more than 75 per cent at night. As a result, temperature falls at night and the capacity to hold humidity also decreases. It results in saturation of air.

Last year, 10 days after Diwali, AQI in the city was 231 and this year, it was around 200. There is a visible fall of over 30 in AQI, yet dense smog is causing concern among the residents.