A thick blanket of fog covered Delhi on Sunday morning, disrupting flight and train schedules in the national capital for the third consecutive day in a row. The city also witnessed a dip in temperature, accompanied by cold wave conditions. However, the India Meteorological Department (IMD) has forecast light rain for Monday bringing a likely respite. “Dense fog conditions during late night to early morning hours is likely to continue over parts of North India till 09th January 09,” it added.
According to the flight tracking website, Flightradar24, over 200 flights have been delayed and 30 flights have been cancelled.
The visibility at Palam was zero for 3.5 hours from 4 am to 7.30 am on Sunday. This was better than the nine hours of zero visibility conditions on Saturday, said the IMD. The visibility improved over Palam to 100 m at 8.30 am as the wind speed increased from 10 kmph to 13 kmph. At Safdarjung, minimum visibility of 50 m was reported at 5.30 am.
The dense fog conditions lifted and moderate fog was later reported at 8.30 am as the wind speed picked up from 4 kmph to 6 kmph, said the IMD. "Compared to Saturday's 9-hour zero visibility spell, Palam experienced a relatively shorter duration of 3.5 hours of zero visibility on Sunday," the IMD added.
According to Delhi airport officials, no flights were diverted on Sunday. The Indira Gandhi International (IGI) Airport issued a passenger advisory at 12.10 pm. “Low visibility procedures are still in progress at Delhi Airport. However, there has been no impact on flight operations. Passengers are requested to contact the airline concerned for updated flight information,” the advisory reads.
Delhi International Airport Ltd (DIAL) operates around 1300 flight movements daily. "Due to adverse weather conditions, flights to/from Delhi, Amritsar, Chandigarh, Kolkata and Lucknow are impacted," IndiGo said in a post on X at 12.59 am. Several trains at New Delhi Railway Station were also delayed due to the dense fog conditions. Meanwhile, the air quality in Delhi remained in the ‘very poor’ category for the fourth consecutive day on Sunday. Delhi’s Air Quality Index (AQI) reading at 1 pm was 339 (‘very poor’ category). The air quality is generally impacted when the smog thickens and temperatures dip, along with reduced wind speeds. The minimum temperature on Sunday was 9.4 degree Celsius, which is above normal by 3 notches. The maximum temperature was stood at 18.6 degree Celsius, which is below normal by one notch. Palam was the cold area which recorded 7.8 degree Celsius.
