LAHORE:The provincial metropolis continued to remain on top of the world’s most polluted cities on Thursday morning when the AQI crossed 350 at various places, however, the average AQI came down to 203 in the evening hours.
Data collected from IQAir revealed that the prevailing AQI was very unhealthy as the PM2.5 concentration was 25.6 times the World Health Organisation (WHO) annual PM2.5 guideline value.
The most polluted city areas included Johar Town, Civil Secretariat, Allama Iqbal Town, different phases of DHA, Askari 10, different areas of Cantonment, Barki Road and Bedian Road.On the other hand, environmentalists said Lahore’s air quality has improved significantly in November this year as compared to last year. According to them the average daily pollution in November 2025 was 237 micrograms per cubic meter, which was 56 percent lower than the highest level of 539 micrograms last year.
Similarly, the monthly average also recorded a 37 percent decrease and has come down to 181 micrograms per cubic meter, they said adding on an annual basis, an overall decrease of about 15 percent was reported in air pollution.
Compared to last year, the factors of severe pollution that kept the city under the cover of smog, smoke and fog for a long time were not seen this time, they claimed and added that the weather also played a pivotal role in this change, where the rate of accumulation of pollution remained low due to better winds and mixing in the air.
However, they said that although the days with the highest pollution were over, the overall baseline pollution level was still worrisome. They said all 30 days of November 2025 remained unsafe compared to Punjab’s environmental standards, where the acceptable limit for health was set at 35 micrograms per cubic meter.
In this context, experts said that the improvement this year was certainly encouraging, but the figures for the coming years will be more important to prove it as a permanent trend. They claimed that in November, the overall average AQI of Lahore city did not reach the extremely dangerous limit of 300. They added if this positive trend continued, the effects of government measures will be clear, otherwise the true nature of the weather and other factors will have to be understood anew.
Meanwhile, a report of Met office said the national mean temperature of 17.49°C was cooler than the country-average 17.87°C with an anomaly of -0.37°C, which means the cold increased this year slightly.
