Capital shivers on coldest day, dense fog hits flights
Tuesday was the coldest day of the season in the Capital, with a maximum temperature of 14 degree Celsius, down from Monday's 20.3 degrees.
Air traffic at Indira Gandhi International airport was also hit due to thick fog on Tuesday.
Several airports across the country also reported facing difficulties in operations due to inclement weather. While fog delayed several flights at IGI airport, at least six flights were cancelled at other airports.
Meanwhile, rainfall of 0.5 mm added to the chill in Delhi. The minimum temperature stood at 9.3 degree Celsius on Tuesday, down from the previous day’s 10.5 degree Celsius.
Visibility dipped below 50 metres as the mercury dropped overnight after two days of clear sky.
The Met department has predicted that for the next two days, the minimum temperature is likely to fall to 6 degree Celsius.
“The temperature on Wednesday is expected to be between 6 and 16 degree Celsius. We will also see shallow fog in the morning and rainfall at night,” said a Met department official.
Flights delayed
The situation at IGI was grim as well. “A total of 13 flights were delayed due to low visibility on the runway at IGI airport. Bad weather at other airports also led to the delay of 11 flights. At least six flights were cancelled and 88 were delayed due to operational reasons as well on Tuesday,” said a spokesperson of Delhi International Airport Limited.
A precautionary measure called ‘low visibility procedure’ was implemented on runways 28 and 29 in the wee hours of Tuesday. It was lifted by 12.30 pm.
A total of 280 flights were operated under this procedure, while 178 flight operated under CAT-1, 47 flights under CAT-2 and 55 operated under CAT-3, the spokesperson said.
The Met Department forecast visibility in the capital to go down on Tuesday night, which may affect flight operations even on Wednesday morning.
The official added that the lowest temperature, in the past 11 years, was recorded on January 8, 2006 when temperature had dipped to 0.2 degree Celsius.
“We are hopeful that this won’t be repeated in 2012 because western disturbance is helping in balancing the weather,” he said.
In meteorology, western disturbance is a strong current of wind that comes from north Afghanistan towards the east coast of India.
Dense fog is expected to reduce to 100 mm or even below over parts of Delhi, Punjab, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh and Bihar in the next 48 hours.
