Week on, smog blocks out sun in region

The smog formed largely due to paddy stubble burning is not letting solar radiation reach the earth’s surface, so much so that sunlight hours over the past week have come down to zero.

Weather department experts said a day after Diwali on November 1, 9.2 hours of sunshine were recorded, which plunged to nil from November 6 to 12. The experts said the “grey sky” phenomenon was mainly caused by farm fires, especially during evening hours, though the bursting of firecrackers on Diwali and “still wind” could be the other contributing factors.

“The high humidity levels and low wind speed don’t let the smoke emitted by straw burning to disperse. It hangs in the air and creates a blanket of smog, not letting the sunrays reach the earth’s surface,” said KK Gill, Principal Agro-Meteorologist at Punjab Agricultural University (PAU) in Ludhiana.

Gill said “still wind” conditions had been prevailing in the region since the second week of October. “Barring on November 1 (2.1 km per hour) and November 11 (2.6 km per hour), the wind speed has not crossed 2 km per hour for the past 12 days,” she added.

The most concerning aspect, said Gill, was the unprecedented rise in night temperature, which was up to 8 degrees Celsius above normal. Comparatively, the day temperature had shown a rise of about 2 degrees Celsius.

Surender Paul, the Director of Chandigarh Meteorological Department, said some respite could be expected over the next few days as the surface winds may pick up pace and blow at 15 to 20 km per hour. However, no rain was expected in the near future, he said. Paul blamed climate change for the prevailing conditions. “Apart from stubble burning and ‘still wind’, large-scale constructions, biomass pollutants, dust and vehicular pollution are contributing to the haze. Moreover, the events of western disturbance are also declining,” he said.

Meanwhile, 83 incidents of farm fires were recorded in the region today, taking the total count this season to 7,112.

Dhankhar cancels PAU visit due to haze

Vice-president Jagdeep Dhankhar’s visit to the PAU and Sat Paul Mittal School in Ludhiana was cancelled due to smog. His plane could not land at the Halwara airport and was later diverted towards Amritsar for re-fuelling. It later headed towards Indore where the Vice-President was to attend some events.