About 30 flights from Delhi’s Indira Gandhi International (IGI) airport were delayed and 17 were canceled on Tuesday due to weather, according to airport officials, as the nation’s capital woke up to freezing temperatures. Five degrees Celsius was the lowest recorded temperature. At the airport, a large number of travelers were observed waiting with their bags.
“My flight was about to depart at 8:40 am but it is now scheduled to depart at 10:30 am…The reason they have given is mainly due to weather and fog,” a passenger exclaimed in an interview.
In this regard, the Delhi airport released an advisory, which said,“Low visibility procedures are in progress at Delhi airport. All flight operations are presently normal. Passengers are requested to contact the airline concerned for updated flight information.”
In the meantime, the low visibility brought on by the fog also caused 30 trains to be delayed. Images from the Nirankari colony revealed a dense layer of fog enveloping the region. Meanwhile, the Indian Meteorological Department said that the Palam and Safdarjung airports have reported 500-meter visibility.
Taking to ‘X’, the weather department wrote, “Delhi Palam (VIDP) and Safdarjung Airports are reporting 500 m visibilities at 0530 hrs IST of today, the 16th January.”
As per the MeT department, fog is considered to be ‘shallow’ when the visibility stands up to 500 metres. ‘Moderate’ fog occurs when the visibility remains up to 200 metres.
As the visibility is up to 50 metres, the fog is categorised as ‘dense’. It is categorised as ‘very dense’ when the visibility reaches below 50 metres.