North India is in a grip of cold wave conditions as temperatures plummet making life difficult for the people. In the plains of North India, the lowest minimum temperature of 0.0 degree Celcius was reported over Rajasthan’s Churu, according to India Metrological Department.
As biting cold conditions engulfed entire North India, fog and poor visibility remained a severe cause of concern on Monday. Fog leading to poor visibility has continued to disrupt road, train, and air traffic.
The desert state of Rajasthan is experiencing a record dip in mercury this year with the hill station of Mount Abu experiencing snowfall and the city of Churu, the gateway to the Thar, recording zero degree Celsius.
People on the high rocky Aravalli plateau of Mount Abu near the Gujarat border woke up to snow-covered grounds, and glass sheets on vehicles. The minimum temperature in another Rajasthan city Churu, which is known as the gateway to the Thar Desert also slipped to zero degree Celsius on Monday.
According to the India Meteorological Department, visibility across most of the northern states remained poor with Bhatinda in Punjab and Bikaner in Rajasthan recording “zero visibility”. The visibility in the national capital here at just 50 meters. Not only in Bhatinda, visibility remained low throughout Punjab, with Amritsar recording visibility of 25 metres and Ambala 50. The national capital New Delhi reeled under a cold wave and foggy conditions, causing disruption of normal life.
Delhi on Sunday recorded a minimum temperature of 5.3 degrees celsius while most parts of northern India today witnessed temperatures in a range between 3 to 7 degrees Celsius said India Meteorological Department (IMD) on Monday.
Besides New Delhi, reports of shivering and foggy conditions came in from many other parts of North India. “Severe cold reported at most places over Punjab; Cold day at most locations with isolated severe cold day reported over Haryana, Chandigarh and Delhi; cold day to severe cold day at isolated places over northwest Rajasthan and west Uttar Pradesh,” read an IMD tweet.
The district magistrate in Bihar’s Patna said in a notice on Saturday that the schools will remain closed for students up to class 8 from Monday till year-end in view of cold wave conditions. Dense fog engulfed parts of Uttar Pradesh’s Moradabad lowering visibility in many areas. As per IMD, “Moradabad will witness a minimum temperature of 7°C and a maximum temperature of 18°C while dense fog will continue to persist today.”
Fog and cold wave conditions prevailed in Uttar Pradesh’s Ghaziabad today. Haridwar in UP too witnessed dense fog as the minimum temperature remained below 10 degrees Celsius. Meanwhile, in Punjab’s Amritsar, fog and cold wave conditions prevailed as the minimum temperature was recorded at 6.5 degrees Celcius today. In Haryana, thick fog shrouded the city of Ambala. The cold wave has brought with it a blanket of fog over North India.
IMD has predicted foggy conditions to continue for the whole week.
According to the IMD, visibility across most of the northern states remained poor with Bhatinda in Punjab and Bikaner in Rajasthan recording “zero visibility”. Not only in Bhatinda, but the visibility throughout Punjab also remained low, with Amritsar recording visibility of 25 metres. Uttar Pradesh, Odisha and West Bengal also recorded very low visibility on the day with the number dipping to 50 metres in Uttar Pradesh and Odisha, while North Bengal recorded visibility of 200 meters. In the last few days, several trains have been delayed and some got cancelled owing to a thick layer of fog.
Often, flights also run delayed amid foggy conditions and poor visibility. In the wake of the same, India’s leading airline and a Star Alliance member, Air India announced on Saturday about its “FogCare” initiative to mitigate the impact of disruptions due to fog on passengers.
This initiative, which will initially be launched for flights departing from and arriving at IGI airport, New Delhi, aims to take care of unforeseen circumstances such as delays and cancellations of flights amid thick fog that engulfs northern India during the winter season.
Under the new FogCare initiative, Air India will be taking proactive steps to isolate the impact of fog on flight operations, which usually takes place in the early mornings and late evenings, but often also cascades throughout the day.