“Yes, we got a lot of queries since morning. It was difficult for many to understand why fog in Delhi and NCR started to form so late, i.e. after 8 am, a time when fog starts clearing. The reason is, today’s fog was not the normal radiation fog which forms in the plains in view of humid winds and low temperatures. It can rather be termed as ‘drifted fog’ which travelled from Uttar Pradesh to NCR and to few pockets of Delhi”, explained a senior meteorologist at Skymet Weather.
Weather models further clarify that fog drifted from parts of Uttar Pradesh and Bihar where it was dense to very dense. At 6:00 am today, the visibility at Lucknow, Gaya and Patna was between 50 to 100 meters. Visibility remained poor and continued to be poor till 10:00 am.
This explains why Noida and Ghaziabad were foggy till 11 am and Mayur Vihar and Akshardham on the other hand were observing a regular day of shallow fog. In fact Palam and Safdurjung in west and central Delhi respectively escaped fog completely, observing a sunny and warm morning.
“I live in Model Town, in north Delhi where the morning was bright and comfortable. However, as I reached Noida, my workplace, it felt much colder and the weather was surprisingly foggy’, talks Aditya Sikri, an IT professional.
“Further, light and humid easterly-southeasterly winds, which are more often the reason for formation of fog in North and East India in the winter, extended the fog cover from Uttar Pradesh to parts of NCR and Delhi. These same winds also added to the chill in the morning, leading to a large variation in the morning minimums in different parts of Delhi, NCR”, added the senior meteorologist.
At 10:30 am, minimums at Palam and Delhi University was 20⁰C and 17⁰C respectively. But it was significantly low in Noida, Meerut and Indirapuram, at around 11⁰C due to fog cover.
Not to forget, our weathermen also explained that the reason for the skies to have looked dull and gloomy for a short duration in Delhi/NCR, Haryana and Punjab today morning was also because of some low/medium clouds travelling in the lower levels because of a feeble system up in the hills.
Though, fog has disappeared from Delhi, patchy clouds could block the sun partially. As a result, the maximums may hover around 22⁰C.
Photo by blogs.reuters.