On Wednesday, the weather official said that on the morning of January 26, dense to very dense fog would be observed during Republic Day celebrations.
The India Meteorological Department (IMD) has cautioned that dense to very dense smog may possibly cover the city nearly each morning over the following few days and cold wave situations may reappear as the minimum temperature is probable to fall to about 4 degrees Celsius once more.
HIGHLIGHTS
- There are chances of rain or thundershowers in some parts of Delhi
- From Saturday, rain is unlikely but dense to very dense fog will engulf the city
- On Jan 26, fog in the morning will cause the visibility in Delhi to drop
Dense fog likely to engulf Delhi till January 27
The IMD will declare the fog as the dense one, if the visibility ranges in the middle of 50 metres and 200 metres and on the other hand, if it drops below 50m, then it will be considered as very dense fog.
The visibility at Indira Gandhi International Airport (IGIA) in Palam, on Wednesday, was fallen to about 100m, bringing the condition of dense fog.
For approximately two hours, the runway visual range fallen about 150m. At Safdarjung, which is reserved to be a demonstrative of the city’s weather, the visibility fallen about 300m.
During these two hours, about seven flights were averted, which the operator of the airport said was not exclusively for the reason of fog. The operator further added, Departure and arrival of flight were not put on hold.
Head of the regional weather forecasting centre in New Delhi, Kuldeep Srivastava, said, “We are expecting dense to very dense fog in Delhi and NCR over the next few days. The minimum temperature is expected to drop sharply over the next four days. Cold wave conditions could return as the night temperature could drop to around 4 degrees Celsius”.
On Wednesday, the temperature of the night was 8 degrees Celsius to normal for this time of the year. On the other hand on Wednesday, the day temperature was 19.9 degrees Celsius, which is one degree below normal.
Earlier this week, due to western disturbance, it had initiated rain in Delhi-NCR and snowfall in the hilly areas. It also made up the night temperature fall about 12.5 degrees Celsius. But now the effect of the disturbance is declining.
AnIMD official said, “As northwesterly and northerly winds start blowing again, they will bring the chill from the hilly areas where there has been heavy snowfall. This is expected to bring down the temperature in Delhi drastically”.
Earlier, the IMD has forecasted that winter would be warmer this time. Though, it turned out to be the coldest December since 2005. On December 29, the minimum temperature was fallen to 2.6 degrees Celsius.
On the other hand, January continued reasonably warmer with the night temperature remaining more than 6 degrees. On Tuesday, the rain and strong winds helps in bringing down the pollution level to moderate level, otherwise the air quality of National Capital was hanging between poor to very poor quality.
But, then on Wednesday, the air pollution increased with wind speed dropping again. The air quality index on Tuesday was 104, whereas on Wednesday it was 212. It was recorded by the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB). Government agencies have estimated that the pollution may possibly increase further over the next few days.
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