With the minimum temperature recorded at 2.8 degrees Celsius at Lodhi Road and 3 degrees Celsius at Safdarjung, Delhi woke up to a cold and foggy Thursday. According to the India Meteorological Department low visibility of 25 metres and 50 metres was recorded at Palam and Safdarjung respectively.
The Regional Meteorological Department of IMD said there will be “dense to very dense fog” in many places. “Cold day to severe cold day conditions at a few places and cold day conditions at isolated places in Delhi, Haryana and Chandigarh.”
“Visibilities reported at 0530 hrs IST of today, (in m): Jammu and Kashmir: Jammu 25 Punjab: Bhatinda 0; Amritsar, Patiala 25 Haryana, Chandigarh & Delhi: Ambala and Chandigarh, Palam 25 each; Safdarjung 50 Uttarakhand: Dehradun 200 Northwest Rajasthan: Ganganagar and Churu 25,” IMD said.
According to IMD, fog is classified as ‘shallow’ when visibility dips below 1000 metres, ‘moderate’ when visibility is between 200 and 500 metres, and ‘dense’ when it is below 200 metres. It is ‘very dense’ when visibility is below 50 metres. Delhi’s AQI is also forecasted to remain in the ‘very poor’ category till January 13.
IMD on Wednesday said that said dense to very dense fog and cold day conditions are likely to continue over North-West India during the next three-four days. It further added, “Cold wave conditions are likely to continue over northwest India during the next three days and the intensity will decrease thereafter.”
The Delhi Airport on Thursday issued a fog alert for all passengers. According to the authorities, low visibility procedures are in progress at the Delhi Airport. Currently, all flight operations are normal, though passengers are requested to contact the airline concerned for updated flight information.
Owing to the dense fog and low visibility level today, 12 trains are running late and two trains were rescheduled in the Northern Railway region.
As per the IMD forecast, the minimum and maximum temperatures in January are likely to remain below normal over many parts of central India and adjoining areas of peninsular, east and northwest India