Overview
- Air quality on New Year’s Day hovered in the very poor range with AQI readings around 372–382 as dense fog reduced visibility and the IMD forecast light rain at isolated places.
- Air India issued advisories about possible flight disruptions due to low visibility across northern India, with data showing widespread delays in morning operations at Delhi airport.
- CREA’s assessment using CPCB data found Delhi’s 2025 annual PM2.5 average at about 95–96 µg/m³, the highest among India’s megacities and far above national and WHO limits.
- December 2025 was the worst since 2018, with a monthly PM2.5 average reported around 207–211 µg/m³ and multiple days crossing severe thresholds.
- Independent analyses reported large regional contributions to Delhi’s winter PM2.5, with only about 35% from local sources in early December and transport comprising roughly 46% of the local share, while monitoring gaps persisted across many NCR cities.