Delhi: Cold wave, dense fog disrupt flight, train movement
Reeling under a persisting cold wave and engulfed by dense fog, Delhi saw scores of flights get delayed owing to poor visibility on Tuesday morning. The movement of trains was also affected as a blanket of fog shrouded the New Delhi Railway Station. The India Meteorological Department's (IMD) Safdarjung Observatory recorded the temperature at 7.8 degrees Celsius on Tuesday at 5:30 am.
Why does this story matter?
The Indo-Gangetic plains are gripped by an intense cold wave and the beginning of this year saw temperatures drop below 5 degrees Celsius. Delhi reported a minimum temperature of 1.9 degrees Celsius on Sunday, which was five degrees below normal and the second-lowest temperature recorded in January since 2008. Delhi was reportedly colder than most places in Himachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand.
Travelers brave cold as flights, trains delayed
Movement of BS-3, BS-4 vehicles banned until Thursday
Visibility lowered to less than 50 m in the Delhi-National Capital Region (NCR), causing Delhi-Kathmandu, Delhi-Jaipur, Delhi-Shimla, Delhi-Dehradun, Delhi-Chandigarh-Kullu flights to be delayed among others. As Delhi's air quality index (AQI) dropped to 418 in the 'severe' category, the movement of BS-3 petrol and BS-4 diesel vehicles was banned until Thursday under Stage 3 of the Graded Response Action Plan (GRAP) to curb pollution.
Cold wave conditions to persist for two more days
The dense fog is being caused by high moisture levels in the air across Punjab along with Delhi, Chandigarh, and Uttar Pradesh. Similar conditions are forecast to prevail across the Indo-Gangetic plains for the next two days due to light winds coupled with high moisture near the surface. The school winter break was extended to Sunday in view of the severe cold.
