Fog brings Delhi-NCR to a halt

Very dense fog gripped Delhi-NCR from 8.30 am to 11.30 am on Wednesday, enveloping the entire region in a white blanket of zero visibility that delayed train arrivals, halted flight take-offs and impacted traffic movement during the morning rush hour, and subsequently had a cascading effect on these operations for the rest of the day.

- Jasjeev Gandhiok

Jasjeev Gandhiok [e-mail] NEW DELHI: By nightfall, multiple parts of the city reported light to moderate rainfall.

The India Meteorological Department (IMD) predicted dense foggy conditions to continue till the weekend and issued a yellow alert till January 18. Citing a western disturbance for the development, IMD also predicted light rainfall early Thursday.

Although this was not the longest fog spell this winter—this was a nine-hour spell from 11.30 pm on January 3 and 8.30 am on January 4—it marked the most delayed dispersal and the first time fog extended beyond 9.30 am this winter, officials said.

R.K. Jenamani, a scientist at IMD, said: "By 8.30 am, visibility was between zero at Palam and Safdarjung and below 100 metres at most places in the city. This deterioration in visibility was due to calm wind conditions in the Capital and the surface atmospheric boundary remaining stable. The wind direction was also easterly, so moisture was being fed to the region. Zero visibility lifted only around 11.30 am and by 12.30 pm too, the visibility was only between 250 and 400 metres."

The fog spell was accompanied by a dip in temperature, with Delhi recording a minimum of 6°C, down from 8.9°C recorded a day earlier and one degree below normal. The maximum was 18.1°C, which was two degrees below normal and down from 21.2°C recorded a day earlier. IMD forecasted Delhi's maximum to hover around 17°C on Thursday, and the minimum around 10°C.