Fog, cold wave grips North India; 26 trains delayed due to low visibility in Delhi

North India continues to grapple with cold wave and fog conditions, causing disruptions in railway services. According to the Indian Railways, approximately 26 trains are running late in the national capital area today due to fog.

On Tuesday also, about 26 Delhi-bound trains were delayed by one to six hours due to fog.

The India Meteorological Department (IMD) took to X (formerly Twitter) and shared the details regarding fog conditions observed in various parts of North India. Uttar Pradesh’s Bahraich and Gorakhpur recorded the lowest visibility at 25 metres while that in Delhi’s Safdarjung and Palam area stood at 500 metres and 600 metres respectively.

‘Very dense’ fog is when visibility is between 0 and 50 meters, 51 and 200 meters is ‘dense’, 201 and 500 meters ‘moderate’, and 501 and 1,000 meters ‘shallow.’

According to Regional Weather Forecasting Centre (RWFC) New Delhi, dense to very dense fog and cold day to severe cold day conditions at isolated places are likely in Haryana, Chandigarh and Delhi till January 6.

Dense fog conditions are also likely to prevail in some pockets in morning hours over Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand during January 3-7, Jammu & Kashmir, Odisha during January 3-5, over Madhya Pradesh on January 4, Rajasthan on January 5, Bihar, Sub-Himalayan West Bengal and Sikkim on January 3 and 4, Assam, Meghalaya, Nagaland, Manipur, Mizoram and Tripura during January 3-6, 2024, IMD said in its latest bulletin.

On Tuesday, Delhi recorded a minimum temperature of 8.3 degrees Celsius, slightly above the normal. The maximum temperature recorded was 17.2 degrees Celsius, two points below the seasonal average.

Humidity fluctuated between 60 and 100 per cent throughout the day on Tuesday. The 24-hour average Air Quality Index (AQI), measured at 4 pm yesterday, stood at 340, placing it in the ‘very poor’ category.

An AQI between 0-50 is classified as ‘good’, 51-100 as ‘satisfactory’, 101-200 as ‘moderate’, 201-300 as ‘poor’, 301-400 as ‘very poor’, and 401-500 as ‘severe’.

Source: Business Today

--Agencies