Dense fog affects flight services in Ranchi, reduces day temperature

Ranchi: Flight services from Ranchi’s Birsa Munda International Airport were affected due to fog since early hours of Monday.
As many as three flights were cancelled and five were diverted to Kolkata on Monday as visibility in Ranchi dipped to below 800 metres. However, railway services from Ranchi and Hatia railway stations remained largely on time, Ranchi divisional railway officials said in the evening.
“One flight to Ranchi from New Delhi was cancelled due to dense fog in the national capital in the morning. Likewise, one flight to New Delhi and another to Bengaluru from Ranchi were cancelled due to fog. Five flights were diverted to Kolkata till the evening,” an official at Ranchi airport terminal said. Fog conditions prevailed till evening.
Ranchi airport director K L Agarwal said: “It is not possible at the moment to give a clear picture of the services affected. But in weathers such as these, problems arise.”
Ranchi railway officials said Islampur-Hatia Express arrived nearly two hours behind its schedule on Monday due to fog.
The Ranchi office of the India Meteorological Department said similar weather conditions are likely to prevail in Ranchi and across Jharkhand in the next 72 hours.
Abhishek Anand, scientist at IMD Ranchi, said: “The prevalent fog in Bihar has shifted southwards towards Jharkhand. That apart, easterly winds are coming in from Bay of Bengal and bringing moisture into the atmosphere due to the prevalent cyclonic circulation. These factors are causing foggy conditions in the state.”
While visibility in Ranchi remained at 800 metres, it was worse in Jamshedpur (300 metres). The weather office also predicted moderate to dense fog in Seraikela-Kharsawan, East Singhbhum, Jamtara, Deoghar, Dumka, Pakur, Godda and Sahibganj with visibilities below 200 metres.
Cloud cover and fog caused a dip in day time temperatures. In Ranchi, maximum temperature was at 22.6 Degrees Celsius, 0.6 Degrees Celsius below normal. Daytime temperature in Jamshedpur was recorded at 24.2 Degrees Celsius, around 1.2 Degrees below normal. Daltonganj recorded a fall in daytime temperature by 3.6 Degrees Celsius from its normal of 24 Degrees Celsius. However, the fog and cloud cover raised the night time temperatures slightly above normal in Ranchi and Jamshedpur and 2.2 Degrees Celsius in Daltonganj.
Isolated shallow to moderate fog was predicted across Garhwa, Palamu, Chatra, Hazaribagh and Giridih with visibility above 200 metres, the IMD said.