Delhi AQI averaged 376 on Diwali day; 12 stations were severe

A city average hides severe pockets

Delhi’s daily average Air Quality Index (AQI) was 376 on Sunday, Nov. 8, in the Central Pollution Control Board’s “very poor” band. But readings varied across the city: 12 of the 59 stations reporting data were classed as “severe,” 22 were “very poor,” and Jahangirpuri recorded the day’s highest figure, 463, The New Indian Express reported, citing CPCB data.

Those figures describe different scales. The 376 is the reported citywide daily average; 463 is one monitor’s reading. CPCB places scores from 301 to 400 in the very-poor category and 401 to 500 in severe. The station counts show that nearly one in five monitors was already above the severe threshold, even as the city average remained 24 points below it.

The same report put Saturday’s average at 369, so Sunday’s figure was seven points higher. Taken together, 34 of the 59 stations were either very poor or severe—about 58%, based on the report’s counts. That calculation does not mean 58% of Delhi residents had the same exposure; monitor readings do not map directly onto every neighbourhood or person.

Emergency curbs came before the festival evening

The Commission for Air Quality Management had invoked Stage III of the Graded Response Action Plan across the National Capital Region on Nov. 6, after Delhi’s daily average reached 382 and forecasts warned that pollution could worsen. Stage III adds emergency measures to the earlier steps; Reuters reported that schools were offered online classes and authorities urged offices to consider remote work and residents to postpone private gatherings.

The New Indian Express report also forecast severe air on Monday as Diwali celebrations, vehicle emissions and the seasonal peak in crop-residue burning converged. That was a forecast, not a recorded Monday outcome in the evidence reviewed here.

Fireworks can add particulate pollution, but they sit on top of a broader seasonal mix. Reuters reported that cold, stagnant conditions can trap traffic emissions, construction dust and smoke from crop-waste burning near the ground. CAQM attributed its earlier deterioration to poor pollutant dispersion under unfavourable weather.

What the number can—and cannot—say

AQI turns measured concentrations of pollutants into a scale that can be compared with public-health categories. A daily average smooths changing conditions over time; a station reading captures one location. Neither alone describes the exact air a person breathed at a particular hour or the source of the particles measured there.

The Sunday report’s gap between the city average and several severe station readings is why a single headline number can understate local peaks. It also cannot show how much of the day’s pollution came from fireworks versus transport, weather or other sources. No later CPCB bulletin or post-fireworks city average was accessible for this report, so those outcomes are left open.