Fog in Delhi improves, air traffic still affected

Fog in Delhi and North India has ebbed and definitely improved as compared to conditions witnessed last week. However, dense fog persists in pockets of northern plains causing great inconvenience to travellers due to a huge number of flight delays in India, besides diversions and cancellations. After the cessation of rain in this region, temperatures have dropped. Therefore, a combination of cold weather, moisture in the air and light winds has given rise to condensation and made conditions favourable for the formation of fog.

Operations at Indira Gandhi International (IGI) Airport in Delhi came to a standstill as visibility started dropping at 5 in the morning and reached zero within an hour. Visibility conditions remained nil till half past 8 and thereafter, improved gradually. In early morning hours, the runway visual range was also poor at around 100 meters but improved after 8.30 a.m. The schedules of more than 80 flights have been hampered before noon, while 3 flights to Chandigarh and 1 to Lucknow have been cancelled.

Places such as Amritsar, Lucknow and Allahabad, which were engulfed in dense fog last week, are showing some improvement. The lowest visibility recorded in Amritsar was 200 meters, for a short duration early morning. At around 8.30 a.m. Lucknow and Allahabad both were at 800 meters. Even Jammu had good visibility and the weather remained clear in Kolkata and Bangalore. On the other hand, visibility remained nil in the airfields of Pathankot, Adampur, Bhatinda, Bikaner and Agra. Skymet predicts dense fog to persist in isolated pockets of Delhi/NCR, Punjab and Haryana in the coming few days as well.

Click here to check today's fog updates for Delhi, major airports and railways in India.