Weather Update: With 1.9°C in Safdarjung, Orange Alert for Delhi; 20 Flights Delayed, Over 480 Trains Affected Due to Dense Fog

Cold wave conditions continued in the national capital on Sunday morning as well, as a thick fog blanketed the entire city. The India Meteorological Department (IMD) issued an orange alert for Sunday in Delhi. Several flights were delayed due to low visibility as a result of fog in the morning.

Passengers shared their experience and said that thick fog was also seen at the airport. “Visibility is very low at the airport amid the severe cold that we all have been experiencing,” some passengers said. Visuals from early Sunday morning showed very low visibility.

According to a Delhi airport official, there was no flight diversion until 6 am on Sunday morning. “Around 20 flights have been delayed at Delhi airport due to weather conditions,” ANI quoted the official as saying. Very dense fog lowered visibility to 50 metres at the Palam observatory near the Indira Gandhi International (IGI) airport at 5:30 am.

Meanwhile, the Indian Railways on Sunday said that over 480 trains have been affected due to dense fog across India. Around 335 trains have been delayed, 88 cancelled, 31 diverted and 33 short terminated due to foggy weather.

Around 42 trains scheduled for travel to or from Delhi are now delayed due to fog. The trains included Purushottam express, Mahabodhi express, Farakka express, Sampark Kranti express, Gorakhdham Superfast express and Padmavat express, among others.

“I came from Bihar’s Patna and my train reached here late by 2-3 hours due to fog,” said Dhananjay Kumar, a passenger at Delhi’s Anand Vihar Terminal railway station.

Meanwhile, an intense cold wave crippled north India, including Delhi, on Saturday with the minimum temperature in parts of the capital plunging to a bone-chilling 1.5 degrees Celsius.

Here are all the important weather updates you need to know:

• Delhi records 1.9 degrees Celsius minimum temperature: The Safdarjung observatory, Delhi’s primary weather station, logged a minimum temperature of 1.9 degrees Celsius on Sunday morning. Parts of Delhi like Aya Nagar recorded a minimum temperature of 2.6 degrees Celcius while Lodhi Road recorded 2.8 degrees Celcius and Palam recorded 5.2 degrees Celcius, said IMD.
• Dense fog engulfs parts of UP and West Bengal: Apart from the national capital, parts of West Bengal like Siliguri and parts of Uttar Pradesh like Lucknow also experienced intense foggy weather on Sunday morning.
• Heaters, blankets placed inside zoo in Lucknow: The Nawab Wajid Ali Shah Zoological garden in Lucknow has placed heaters and blankets inside the animal cages to protect them from the chilling weather. Apart from the heaters and blankets, the zoo administration has also placed hay grass inside the cages of tigers, lions and bears.
• Cold wave conditions to continue in Rajasthan, Haryana: Cold wave to severe cold wave conditions are very likely to continue over some areas in Rajasthan and Haryana and Chandigarh on Sunday. However, slight relief is likely after a couple of days under the influence of back-to-back western disturbances, IMD said.
• Snowfall in higher reaches of Jammu Kashmir: Some areas in the higher reaches of Kashmir received light snowfall as the minimum temperature settled close to the freezing point at most places in the Valley, providing a slight relief to the people from the intense cold, officials said on Sunday.
• Fall in minimum temperature likely in Madhya Pradesh: Fall by 2-3°C in minimum temperatures is very likely over Madhya Pradesh during the next two days and no significant change during the subsequent three days.
• Haryana, Punjab continue to reel under cold weather: The ongoing cold wave sweeping Haryana and Punjab continued unabated, with minimum temperatures on Sunday hovering below normal limits at most places. While the minimum temperatures have been hovering below normal limits at most places for the past over a fortnight, the maximum temperatures too have dropped sharply for the past over a week.
• Temperatures significantly drop in Haryana’s Hisar and Sirsa: Hisar in Haryana reeled under severe chill, recording minimum temperatures of 1.4 degrees Celsius each. Biting cold also prevailed in Sirsa, which recorded a minimum temperature of 3.2 degrees Celsius
• Frost conditions likely in Rajasthan, MP till Monday: Very ground frost conditions in isolated places of north Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh on January 8-9 and over Haryana, Chandigarh & Delhi, Uttarakhand and West Uttar Pradesh on January 8 and abate thereafter, IMD had said on Saturday.
• Severe cold wave in most parts of north India: A severe cold wave is when the minimum temperature dips to 2 degrees Celsius or the departure from the normal limits is by more than 6.4 notches. A cold day is when the minimum temperature is less than or equal to 10 degrees Celsius and the maximum temperature is at least 4.5 notches below normal.

(With PTI Inputs)

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