Fog envelops Delhi, North India shivers

“It is due to a cover of a highly humid fog that one may experience lesser sunshine than normal,” said an official of the India Meteorological Department.

Some flights of three airlines were delayed by 30 minutes to an hour as fog enveloped Indira Gandhi International Airport here on Monday morning.

Some flights of SpiceJet, GoAir and Kingfisher were delayed, airport sources said. However, Delhi International Airport Limited maintained that no flight was delayed and 136 of them were operated during the period.

Low visibility procedures were initiated at the two runways of the airport from 7:20 am to 10:59 am after fog started setting in and some flights took off and landed at the airport using the CAT I and II Instrument Landing System, officials said.

The IGI airport has augmented its round-the-clock call centre, which will share the latest flight information, which can be accessed from the airport’s website also.

Though northern India is facing the onslaught of a harsh winter already, this did not have a direct bearing on the slight drop in temperatures here, he said.

Delhi’s wintry, misty day dawned with the minimum temperature at 7.9 degrees Celsius, falling a degree below the average for this time of the season, and maximum humidity at 95 per cent. The maximum temperature was recorded at 23.9 degrees Celsius.

Jammu and Kashmir’s summer capital Srinagar shivered at minus 3.4 degrees Celsius while Leh town in the Ladakh region virtually froze with the minimum temperature slipping to minus 12.8 degrees.