Dense fog enveloped the nationwide capital for almost 9 hours on Tuesday, with visibility dropping to as little as 50 metres in elements of town, disrupting flight operations at Delhi’s Indira Gandhi Worldwide (IGI) airport, the place greater than 200 flights have been delayed between midnight and 9am, information confirmed.
Whereas the bottom visibility recorded at Safdarjung was 50 metres, it stood at 100 metres at Palam. “Visibility started dipping quickly on Monday evening itself and by 11.30pm, had already touched 100 metres. It remained on this vary until 8.30am on Tuesday,” an India Meteorological Division (IMD) official mentioned.
The IMD classifies fog as shallow if visibility is between 1,000 and 500 metres; reasonable if between 500 and 200 metres; dense if between 199 and 50 metres; and really dense if beneath 50 metres.
Delhi’s minimal temperature stood at 9.4°C on Tuesday, a level above regular, in contrast with 10.4°C recorded on Monday.
Town’s most temperature on Monday was 17.5°C, 5 levels beneath regular for this time of the 12 months. It’s forecast to vary between 19°C and 21°C on Tuesday as upper-level fog dissipates submit midday.
The IMD has additionally forecast a western disturbance to have an effect on northwest India from February 5-7. Whereas rainfall is unlikely in Delhi, sturdy winds of 20–30 kmph are anticipated on February 6 and seven, officers mentioned.
In the meantime, Delhi’s air high quality, which briefly improved to the reasonable class on Monday morning, continued to deteriorate and remained on the larger finish of the ‘poor’ class. The 24-hour common air high quality index (AQI) stood at 256 at 8am on Tuesday, up from a studying of over 210 at 4pm on Monday. Forecasts point out that the AQI is probably going to enhance to the ‘reasonable’ class by February 5 as wind speeds improve.
“Delhi’s air high quality is more likely to be ‘poor’ on February 3 and 4. It’s more likely to be within the ‘reasonable’ class by February 5,” the Centre’s Air High quality Early Warning System for Delhi mentioned on Monday.
