Rain in parts of Haryana and Punjab brought the mercury down by a few notches on Friday, with AQI levels witnessing a slight improvement.
Chandigarh, the common capital of the two states, also received light rain during the day.
In Haryana, Ambala, Jhajjar, Narnaul, Faridabad, Gurugram, Rohtak, Hisar and Fatehabad received rains, according to the meteorological department here.
In neighbouring Punjab, Amritsar, Jalandhar, Tarn Taran, Moga, Ludhiana, Patiala, Pathankot, Ferozepur and Rupnagar received rain.
After the rains in the region, there was a slight improvement in the Air Quality Index (AQI) levels at some places where it had been quite high on Thursday. However, the AQI continued to be much higher than normal levels.
The AQI in some places in Haryana and Punjab over the last few days has been in the "poor" and "very poor" categories. A few places in Haryana, mostly those in the National Capital Region, have reported AQI in the "severe" category.
In Haryana's Sonipat, AQI dropped from 433 on Thursday to 342 on Friday. In Jind, AQI dropped from 432 to 262 and Kaithal saw its AQI drop from 430 to 317. In Hisar and Fatehabad, which had recorded an AQI of 411 each, recorded 219 and 225 respectively on Friday.
The AQI in Faridabad AQI dropped from 407 to 308, Gurugram from 399 to 240, Rohtak from 358 to 241, Kurukshetra from 340 to 314 and Bhiwani from 332 to 218.
In Punjab, the AQI in Amritsar dropped from 225 to 212, Mandi Gobindgarh from 354 to 305, Jalandhar from 258 to 221.
However, in Patiala the AQI rose to 306 from 300 on Thursday, while in Bathinda it went up to 383 from 372 a day earlier.
Chandigarh also saw its AQI deteriorate further. AQI in the city was recorded at 230 on Friday, against 209 a day earlier.
An AQI between zero and 50 is considered “good”, 51 and 100 “satisfactory”, 101 and 200 “moderate”, 201 and 300 “poor”, 301 and 400 “very poor”, and 401 and 500 “severe”.
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