The India Meteorological Department stated that the air quality in Delhi-NCR region is likely to improve post Diwali as a result of a fresh western disturbance, which may increase the wind speed.

Under its influence, light rain may occur in the area on Sunday, the MET department said.

Whether the rain would be enough to wash away the pollutants is still a matter of speculation, Kuldeep Srivastava, the head of the IMD's regional forecasting centre said.

"However, Delhi-NCR's air quality is likely to improve post Diwali due to an increase in the wind speed. On Sunday, the maximum wind speed is expected to be around 12 to 15 kilometers per hour," he said.

The IMD’s head of environment research centre VK Soni said firecracker emissions and calm winds may result in the air quality moving to the ‘severe’ zone on Diwali night.

“The wind speed is expected to pick up thereafter and the wind direction will be east-south easterly,” he explained.

“There will be a significant improvement in air quality by November 16”, Soni said.

The forecasting agency also said that on November 15 and 16, the western disturbance will set off "scattered to fairly widespread" precipitation over Jammu and Kashmir, Ladakh, Himachal Pradesh; and isolated rainfall over Uttarakhand and the plains of northwest India.

Over the next few days, northwest India may witness a two or three degrees Celcius rise in the minimum temperature, which will dip after the withdrawal of the western disturbance from the region.