Archive · 2 Oct 2025
Delhi Air Quality Forecasts Accurate; System Improvement Urged
Scientists studied Delhi's air quality forecast system and found it's good at predicting bad air days.
The system, run by the IMD and IITM, gives warnings 3-10 days ahead.
In the past few winters, it correctly predicted 'very poor' air quality over 80% of the time.
They suggest making the system better by running it year-round and using it to test ideas like changing traffic rules and better public transport.
More cities in India are using these early warning systems to help fight air pollution.
Delhi's air quality early warning system predicts 'very poor' days with over 80% accuracy.
The study was conducted by CEEW.
The early warning system successfully forecast a high number of 'very poor' air quality episodes in recent winters.
The system, run by IITM and IMD, provides pollution forecasts 3-10 days in advance.
Improvements are suggested to enhance the system's effectiveness, including year-round operation.
- Who
- Council on Energy, Environment and Water (CEEW), Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorology (IITM), India Meteorological Department (IMD)
- What
- Study on Delhi's air quality early warning system; pollution forecast
- When
- Published Wednesday, study covered recent winters 2023-24 and 2024-25
- Where
- Delhi, India
- Why
- To assess the accuracy of the early warning system and suggest improvements
Air Quality Management
Air Quality Forecasting
Improvements
Air Quality Management
Improved air quality requires ongoing actions to better the existing early warning system.
Air Quality Forecasting
The current system demonstrates high accuracy levels, especially concerning forecasting days with very poor air quality.
- Forecasting Accuracy (Very Poor Days)
- Over 80% in recent winters
- System Operators
- IITM and IMD
- Early Warning System Launch
- 2018
- DSS introduction
- 2021
Sources
Delhi pollution forecast system predicted very poor days with over 80 pc accuracy in last 2 years: Study
Better accuracy, but many limitations still plague Delhi’s air quality forecasting, shows study
Delhi sees clear skies, rain forecast for Thursday
Delhi’s monsoon air quality improves significantly, AQI drops from 109 to 91 in eight years
Rain, thunderstorms likely in Delhi during day
