JOIN USDelhi shivers at 2.6 degrees Celsius
Delhiites on Sunday woke up to the season’s coldest day with the temperature plummeting to 2.6 degrees Celsius – five degrees below normal – and a thick envelop of fog covering the entire city.
As the temperature drop forced most of the people to remain indoors, the fog cover adversely impacted air traffic, delaying 96 flights. As many as 39 trains too were running behind schedule.
“Seventeen flights inbound for Delhi were diverted due to low visibility, below 50 mt. Six flights were cancelled. As many as 73 flights were delayed due to low visibility,” says the Indira Gandhi International airport fog bulletin
So much so that even Prime Minister Narendra Modi could not fly to Ranchi to attend the swearing-in ceremony of the new Jharkhand Chief Minister Raghubar Das and his cabinet. “Was to travel to Jharkhand to attend the oath taking ceremony of Raghubar Das but am unable to do so due to weather conditions,” Modi tweeted.
“This is the lowest temperature recorded in Delhi in the past five years. It could be the lowest in the past decade too but records for the same aren’t immediately available,” a weather official said. Delhi’s all time low of 1.1 degree Celsius was recorded on December 26, 1945.
“As many as 33 trains have been rescheduled and six trains have to be cancelled,” Northern Railways says in a statement.
Office goers had a hard time reaching their destinations.
The blinding fog in the morning led to a drop in the number of taxis and auto-rickshaws on the road. Many drivers were put to hardship as they couldn’t find their way in the fog.
On Saturday, the national capital had recorded the second lowest temperature of the season with mercury dipping to 4.8 degrees Celsius, three notches below normal, though the afternoon was comparatively warmer. The same weather pattern was seen on Sunday when the temperature dropped to 2.6 degrees Celsius in Safdarjung and 3.5 degrees in Palam.
Though the sun came up for a while in the afternoon, the mercury nosedived after sunset.