Cold wave grips North India, dense fog continue next four days

Cold wave conditions continue as a blanket of dense fog engulfed Delhi-NCR, pushes the visibility to zero, causing major disruptions to air and rail traffic.

As per IMD, this foggy spell is expected to linger for the next four days (January 18) in the national capital and other parts of the region.

On Sunday,  the minimum temperature in the city dropped to 3.5 degrees Celsius. The mercury dipped even lower in the Lodhi Road area to 3.4 degrees Celsius, 4 degrees below normal.

At Palam, the minimum temperature recorded at 5.9, Ayanagar 4.0, Ridge 4.4. respectively.

A thick blanket of fog covered most parts of the NCR region and visibility on the roads was reduced to zero.

As per the Indian railways, around 22 trains to Delhi from various parts of the country were running late, and several flight operations at Delhi’s Indira Gandhi International (IGI) Airport were also affected due to dense fog conditions.

Meanwhile, Parts of Punjab, Haryana, Chandigarh, Uttar Pradesh also witnessed dense fog and recorded the minimum temperature several notches below normal.

The IMD forecasted the coldwave conditions along with dense to very dense fog will continue till January 18

According to IMD, no significant change in minimum temperatures is expected over Northwest India during next 24 hours, following which the temperatures will see a rise of 2-3°C for subsequent 3 days.

Moreover, a fresh Western disturbance is likely to affect Western Himalayan region from Tuesday, 16 January.

Meanwhile for  the first time this winter season, zero visibility was recorded across parts of the country from Amritsar to Dibrugarh across Ganganagar, Patiala, Ambala, Chandigarh, Palam, Safdarjung, Bareilly, Lucknow, Bahraich, Varanasi, Prayagraj and Assam’s Tezpur.