Dust storm in West Asia is making Mumbai air quality worse

While Mumbai is already grappling with the effects of localised pollution and winter moisture both of which are deteriorating air quality dust travelling from West Asia appears to be adding to Mumbaikarsrsquo woes A dust storm originating in Iran Afghanistan and Pakistan is exacerbating the cityrsquos already poor air quality resulting in haze and low visibility Experts note that a similar phenomenon occurred thrice in 2022 each time worsening the cityrsquos air qualityOn Friday December 27 Mumbai recorded an overall Air Quality Index AQI of Navy Nagar in Colaba recorded an AQI of 302 very poor in the morning it gradually dropped to 265 poor in the afternoon At around 5 pm other stations which recorded poor AQI in Mumbai and MMR included Borivli East 207 Malad west 265 Mazagaon 207 Meanwhile the Maharashtra Pollution Control Board MPCB AQI monitoring station at Siddhivinayak Nagar in Ulhasnagar recorded an AQI value of 303 very poorBuildings are veiled by smog at Girgoan on Sunday PicShadab KhanThe situation worsened further with more areas recording poor AQI values on Saturday when Borivli East IITM recorded an AQI value of 299 followed by Byculla 279 Deonar 203 Mazagaon 284 Malad West 253 Navy NagarColaba 286 Siddharth Nagar Worli 271 Again on Sunday evening while Mumbairsquos overall AQI remained in the moderate category at 198 several monitoring stations across the city recorded poor to very poor levels see boxPhenomenon explainedDr Gufran Beig chairprofessor at the National Institute of Advanced Sciences NIAS said ldquoThere are multiple dust storms emerging from border areas of Iran and Afghanistan towards the Arabian sea and eventually trying to intrude into the coastal region led by Mumbai Meteosat dust imaging and our model output are showing some dust intrusion to the Arabian Sea from Afghanistan and Pakistan towards Mumbai But not very significant due to winter heavy air which tends to resist longer movement It may contribute less than 50 micrograms of PM10 to Mumbai Heavier air allows it to descend lower The effect will be more visible in the upper sky and less so on the groundrdquoBeig said that the impact of dust storms leading to deteriorating air quality in Indian cities Mumbai in this case is not common during winter months but a similar phenomenon was witnessed thrice in 2022 between January and FebruaryldquoThe source of these dust storms is invariably desert regions in the Gulf Iran Afghanistan and Pakistan Storms that occur in June and July donrsquot typically affect Mumbai or neighbouring areas because of the Indian monsoon In spring and summer though factors like high temperatures atmospheric instability strong northwesterly winds and thunderstorms create ideal conditions for dust storms and subsequent pollution events During this period upperlevel winds over the Arabian Sea become significantly stronger allowing dust particles to travel faster In regions stretching from Afghanistan Pakistan and Iran to the Thar desert in Rajasthan dust lifting becomes widespread and intense evolving into fullfledged dust stormsrdquo Beig explainedImpact of stormClimatologist Rajesh Kapadia of the private weather blog Vagaries of the Weather told midday that Mumbai has experienced intense smog for the past eight days with various theories circulating ranging from construction pollution to excessive gas releases However Kapadia emphasised a meteorological explanation noting that neither construction repair work nor gas burning began specifically on December 20 nor were these activities banned before that dateAccording to Kapadia a severe dust storm developed around December 20 over Iraq and gradually moved eastward Meteorologically a strong anticyclone at 31 km and 58 km altitudes was centred over the Arabian Peninsula bringing powerful winds over Gujarat and into Maharashtra from the Arabian Seamdasheffectively drawing dust into its circulation Under normal conditions air closer to the ground is warmer while higher altitudes are cooler During a temperature inversion this pattern inverts trapping colder surface air and any suspended particles beneath a layer of warmer air As a result the moist dust settled closer to ground level in Mumbai and its surrounding regionsCertain urban areas in Mumbai saw heavier deposition due to local topography Despite the discomfort caused by this smog manifesting as reduced visibility and breathing difficulties air quality in many places remained ldquomoderaterdquo rather than ldquosevererdquo Kapadia attributes this partly to the nature of the dust and partly to the fact that it was ldquosucked inrdquo by the anticyclone He adds that the dust patch in West Asia appeared even larger on satellite images as of December 29 raising concerns that the current situation might persist or intensifylsquoItrsquos not unusualrsquoSunil Kamble director of the India Meteorological Department in Mumbai said ldquoWinter haze over many parts of the city reduces visibility because northerly or easterly winds push pollutants in Under normal circumstances the sea breeze would disperse these pollutants but in its absence suspended particles remain in the air creating a haze blanket Although there is a dust storm in West Asia itrsquos not an unusual phenomenon and we need more study before linking it directly to Mumbairsquos worsening air quality Meanwhile local sources of pollution such as construction dust garbage burning and vehicular emissions continue to be significant factors The IMD regularly shares weather updates with local civic and government bodies farmers and the defence forces Since the BMC itself monitors air quality and visibility around the clock itrsquos essential that the public receives timely updatesrdquoIndependent weather enthusiast Rushikesh Agre popularly known as lsquoMumbai Rainsrsquo on X wrote on Sunday ldquoThings are likely to improve from December 30 and December 31 for Mumbai AQI levels will come down by next week Please take precautions wear masks if possiblerdquoAQI on December 29Mumbai overall 198Borivli East IITM 274Byculla BMC 300Kherwadi MPCB 246Malad West IITM 274Mazagaon IITM 227Navy Nagar IITM 316Shivaji Nagar BMC 231Siddharth Nagar IITM 296