Dense fog, cold nights lie in wait

NEW DELHI: After recording a couple of spells of rain and even hail in the last few days, Delhi is now likely to see dense to very dense fog until Sunday. Light rain may also occur on Friday, India Meteorological Department (IMD) said on Wednesday.



According to the regional Met department, dense to very dense fog may occur primarily due to high moisture in the air, resulting in visibility falling to 0-50 metres in the next few days. Humidity levels oscillated between 77% and 100% on Wednesday.

Delhi is also likely to see a drop in both maximum and minimum temperatures. "The minimum may fall by 3-4 degrees Celsius and touch 4 degrees by Sunday," said a Met official. Delhi's minimum on Wednesday was 8 degrees Celsius and the maximum 19.9, one degree below normal for this time of the season. The forecast shows a maximum and minimum of 19 and 6 degrees Celsius for Thursday.

Dense fog affected both train and flight operations even on Wednesday as the visibility fell below 200 metres. An IGIA official said seven flights were diverted to nearby airports. Though no flight was cancelled, the schedule of around 100 got disrupted. At least 10 trains got delayed.

After recording the cleanest air quality index (AQI) of 104 (moderate) in four months on Tuesday, the city air returned to 'poor' on Wednesday with an overall AQI of 212. An official said 27.8mm of rain was recorded in the last 24 hours.

"The early fog warnings at IGI Airport on Monday was the reason why not many flight operations were impacted," said an official. A DIAL spokesperson said the visibility took a dip around 8am and became normal around 1pm.