Cold wave and fog hit flights, train services in north India: Key points

NEW DELHI: People in the northern parts of India woke up to a chilly Wednesday morning, while the dense fog lowered visibility in some areas, affecting road and rail traffic. The cold to severe cold wave is expected to continue over Punjab, Haryana, north Rajasthan and Delhi, while dense to very dense fog will continue to prevail in the belt, said India Meteorological Department (IMD).
Here are some key points on weather conditions-
Dense fog in North India causes massive flight disruptions
As many as 100 flights have been disrupted in Delhi alone as the city continues to reel under severe cold conditions with a thick layer of fog over it again on Wednesday.
Even as the congestion at the airport in New Delhi was being tackled amid a busy year-end holiday season, the problems of air travellers increased once more with dense fog covering most parts of north India.
Poor visibility affecting the northern parts of the country over the past few days, once again disrupted flight movement on Wednesday.
Fog duration, intensity in north India reduced as predicted: IMD
In an official statement, the IMD said, "As forecast, fog duration, intensity and areas it covered, have been significantly reduced today morning across north India including over NCR Delhi."
It further said that the airports in the national capital, Uttar Pradesh, and Chandigarh have seen shallow fog whereas Pathankot, Jammu, and Amritsar will continue to have dense fog today.
Dense fog enveloped Amritsar as cold wave gripped the city. The IMD had predicted a minimum temperature of 6 degree Celsius and a maximum temperature of 15 degree Celcius with fog or mist in Amritsar this morning, followed by a partly cloudy sky later.
Dense fog and cold wave conditions continued to sweep the national capital with the city recording a minimum temperature of 7.8 degrees Celsius on Wednesday morning.
Cold to resurge from December 31: IMD
According to the IMD, cold day conditions are likely to abate over northwest India from Wednesday and then resurge from December 31.
From December 28 onwards there will be a significant improvement as the cold wave will go due to western disturbance, stated Jenamani. In Delhi so far, the lowest temp of 4.0 degrees celsius was recorded at Aya Nagar and a cold wave is still prevailing at isolated places.
Fog reduces visibility
Delhi reeled under a cold wave and foggy conditions, disrupting normal life. A layer of dense fog was observed in the national capital region, reducing the visibility and the speeds of vehicles across the area. The visibility at Palam was recorded at 500 meters.
Visibility remained low in Punjab, with Amritsar recording visibility of upto 25 metres and Patiala 200. While Bhatinda recorded zero visibility once more.
Haryana too recorded low visibility. While Ambala recorded a low of 200, visibility in Chandigarh was also 200 metres.
Uttar Pradesh's Bareilly recorded 25m and Bahraich recorded 200m. Bihar's Purnea and Odisha's Gopalpur recorded a low of 50m each.
Dense fog in Northeast
Dense fog is very likely over Arunachal Pradesh, Assam and Meghalaya and Nagaland, Manipur, Mizoram and Tripura during the next three days, according to IMD.
Meanwhile, cold day and severe cold day is mainly over south Haryana and West Uttar Pradesh. Day temperatures improved over north Punjab, north Haryana and North Rajasthan. Cold to severe cold waves continue over Punjab, Haryana, North Rajasthan and Delhi, RK Jenamani said.
Biting cold conditions continue in Punjab, Haryana
Biting cold conditions continued in Punjab and Haryana on Wednesday, with Bathinda being the coldest place in the region, according to a report issued by the Meteorological Department here.
A thick blanket of fog also enveloped many parts of both the states, thus reducing visibility.
In Punjab, Bathinda shivered at one degree Celsius, the report said.
Amritsar recorded its low at 2.8 degrees Celsius while Ludhiana's minimum temperature was 6.4 degrees Celsius.
Patiala, Pathankot, Faridkot and Gurdaspur recorded their respective minimums at 6.8, 7.1, 3.5 and 4.7 degrees Celsius.
Union Territory Chandigarh, the joint capital of Punjab and Haryana, recorded its minimum temperature at 5.1 degrees Celsius.
In Haryana, Narnaul experienced cold weather conditions at 4 degrees Celsius.
Among other places in the state, Ambala's minimum temperature was 6.7 degrees Celsius while Hisar's low was 4.3 degrees Celsius.
The minimum temperatures of Karnal, Rohtak, Bhiwani and Sirsa settled at 6.7, 8.2, 4.3 and 5.8 degrees Celsius respectively.
Rajasthan's Churu shivers at 0.6 degree
As a cold wave continued in Rajasthan, Churu recorded the state's lowest minimum temperature of 0.6 degree Celsius, while Sikar (Fatehpur) came in the second place with 0.8 degree.
Meanwhile the minimum temperatures in Karauli was 1.7 degree, Hanumangarh 1.8 degree, Bhilwara 4.3 degrees, Nagaur 4.7 degrees and Bikaner 5.5 degrees.
The Met Department said the weather remained dry in the state in the last 24 hours while shallow to moderate fog occurred at isolated places.
Cold wave to severe cold wave conditions were observed at isolated places in the northern part of Rajasthan.
During the last 24 hours, below normal temperatures was registered in Bikaner and Ajmer.
An appreciable rise was seen in the last 24 hours in the night temperatures, said weather officials.