New Delhi, Jan 21 (Inditop.com) A thick fog cover Thursday enveloped the entire north India region, including the national capital, hitting air, rail and road traffic. The dense fog blanket is expected to remain for the next few days, the weatherman said.
The fog in the national capital was the heaviest since 2003, breaking a seven-year record.
An India Meteoroloical Department (IMD) official said: “The fog cover will prevail over Delhi and north India for the next two-three days, after which it will reduce.
“Generally, around the third week of January there is thick fog in the nights and early mornings, which clears up later in the day. Therefore, there is nothing unusual about the dense fog now,” the official added.
IMD director B.P. Yadav said: “The fog (in Delhi) since last (Wednesday) night has been the most dense and prevailed for the longest time period since 2003. The weather conditions today (Thursday) broke a seven-year record.”
Heavy blinding fog engulfed the city late Wednesday and lasted till Thursday morning. According to the IMD, the visibility until 10 a.m. was less than 50 metres.
The fog conditions were similar in most parts of Punjab, Haryana and the union territory of Chandigarh.
In Amritsar, the mercury level dipped to a chilling minus one degree Celsius – a good three degrees below the average. Chandigarh recorded a minimum temperature of 5.1 degrees Celsius.
In Uttar Pradesh, the temperature dropped to 3.5 degrees Celsius in Shahjahanpur – making it the coldest region in the state. A dense fog cover enveloped the state early in the day.
The blinding fog cover in Delhi severely affected vehicular movement, and air and rail services across northern India.
An airport official at the Indira Gandhi International (IGI) airport said: “Low visibility procedures had to be used because of the fog. Over 100 arrivals and departures were affected. 25 flights were cancelled and 22 rescheduled.”
From zero visibility in the early hours, the runway visibility improved towards noon and was 750 meters at 11.30 a.m.
The railway schedule was also badly hit.
According to a Northern Railways official, 29 trains were rescheduled, 64 trains delayed by more than five hours – some by as much as seven hours or more – and 41 services were cancelled.
Rajinder Kumar, a motorcyclist from east Delhi, said: “I was stuck in the chilling cold for one hour. The visibility was very bad and I wasn’t able to see even till 10 meters. I had to drive very slowly with caution. Two or three traffic red lights were not functioning either, which made things worse.”
An official at the Shimla airport said air connectivity snapped there because of the low thick fog in Delhi.
“Flights from Delhi to Shimla and to Bhuntar (near Kullu) were snapped today (Thursday) due to dense fog in Delhi. The flights are likely to resume tomorrow (Friday),” an official at the airport said.
The mercury, however, rose marginally in Shimla, even as Keylong in Himachal Pradesh froze at minus 9.9 degrees Celsius.
