Delhiites woke up to an ambiguous condition on Wednesday morning. The blinkers of the vehicles on the road were well visible but kind of a haziness prevailed in the air. Though the horizontal visibility has been fairly good in Delhi, the vertical visibility has been obscure since morning. The condition of the sky seemed misleading as there are no landmarks up there to make a judgement as to the extent of obscurity. The visibility at Palam airport at around 6 a.m. dropped from 400 meters to 250 meters within an hour or so. The runway visibility also dropped from 1200 meters to 700 meters. The situation improved after 8.30 a.m. but the day remained the least bright of the season in Delhi.
The Western Disturbance is clearing away from the western Himalayas and parts of Jammu & Kashmir, leaving no significant effect on the northern plains. Only few low clouds at an elevation of 10,000 feet can be observed in Amritsar and adjoining areas.
In most parts of North India, the direction of winds have changed from northerly to easterly and south easterly, leading to an increase in humidity levels. Thus, haziness returned in the air as moisture content is the most important factor contributing to formation of fog. This Fog in Delhi will persist for the next two days till the fresh Western Disturbance brings light rain on the 17th of January.
Conditions seem favourable for the drop in minimum temperatures however, a thick cover of fog in Delhi and pockets of Punjab have not permitted radiations of surface heat, allowing minimums to increase. Chandigarh experienced dense fog today while, the visibility in Amritsar was better at 500 meters.
Fog in East India has cleared to a large extent. The general visibility in Agra was 600 meters and more than 800 meters in other cities of Uttar Pradesh including Allahabad, Gorakhpur and Varanasi. The situation has shown improvement in Bihar as well with visibility in Gaya being 800 meters. In the Northeast, Bagdogra, Agartala and Guwahati continue to witness zero visibility. Fog in East India will make a comeback and stay for the next 48 hours.
Photo by Pankaj Singh
