Delhi: Dense fog enveloped Delhi and adjoining cities on Monday morning, disrupting air and rail traffic as the visibility was reduced to zero in some parts, officials said.
Thirty trains are running late due to low visibility. Heavy fog disrupted flight operations at the Delhi airport on Monday with 20 flights diverted, four cancelled, and around 530 delayed till 12.52 pm, an official said. Flights are operating at the airport under CAT III B conditions, which means that the runway visual range (RVR) is between 50 metres and 175 metres.
Giving an update on flight operations at 12.52 pm, the official said 16 flights have been diverted and four cancelled as of now.
"Around 530 flights - which includes 320 departures as well as 210 arrivals approximately - have been delayed on Monday till 12.52 pm," the official added.
In a statement, IndiGo airline said,"Owing to dense fog in north India our flights have been impacted across India. We will continue to review the situation and provide real time updates on our social platforms."
The airline also requested passengers to check flight status before leaving home and reach out to its customer care.
Vistara airline said on Twitter that its Delhi-Mumbai flight UK933 as well as Mumbai-Delhi flight UK996 stands cancelled due to poor visibility in Delhi.
Vistara along with GoAir, SpiceJet, AirAsia India stated on Twitter that due to dense fog and poor visibility in Delhi, their flight operations might be impacted, and advised passengers to check flight status before leaving for the airport.
Traffic jam was also reported from DND (Delhi Noida Direct) due to low visibility.
The minimum temperature settled at 2.6 degrees Celsius at the Safdarjung observatory, four notches below the season's average, and humidity was 100 per cent.
The minimum temperature at Palam was recorded at 2.9 degrees Celsius, Lodhi Road at 2.2 degrees Celsius while at Ayanagar it was recorded at 2.5 degrees Celsius
Delhi's air quality index was in the severe category at 450 at 8.38 am.
The visibility recorded by the Safdarjung and Palam observatories stood at zero metres at 8.30 am. It was recorded at 100 metres at Safdarjung and zero at Palam at 5.30 am.
Since December 14, the national capital has been experiencing "severe cold days" with the average minimum temperature on Sunday morning being recorded at 3.4 degrees Celsius, four notches below what is considered normal for this time of the year.
The mean temperature for December 2019 till Sunday was 19.07 degrees Celsius and it is "most likely to become second coldest December since 1901", behind 17.3 degrees Celsius in December 1997, the Met department said.
Humidity levels oscillated between 64 per cent to 100 per cent, it added.
For Monday, the weatherman had predicted dense fog in the morning with cold day at a few places in Delhi-National Capital Region (NCR).
A significant increase in wind speed is also expected over Delhi-NCR from Tuesday evening under influence of approaching western disturbance and easterly winds in lower level, the department said.
Meanwhile, the schools in Haryana and Uttar Pradesh's Lucknow and Agra will remain closed on December 30 and 31 due to the cold wave conditions.
(With PTI inputs)
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