New Delhi: Heavy fog engulfed the national capital on Wednesday — the first this season — delaying 18 flights and 50 north-bound trains.
Five of the flights were diverted due to poor visibility at the Indira Gandhi International Airport where low visibility procedures were implemented.
“More than 18 flights were delayed due to the sharp drop in runway visibility, forcing the airport authorities to switch to operations under LVP,” officials said.
The visibility was recorded at 800 metres at 5:30 am, which dropped to 200 metres three hours later. The relative humidity was recorded at 98 per cent.
“This is the season’s first fog cover...The skies are expected to remain clear during the day and the maximum temperature is expected to hover around 28ºC,” the official said.
The minimum temperature was recorded at 11ºC, a notch above the season’s average
According to railway officials, 50 Delhi-bound services from Patna, Ranchi, Howrah, Bhubaneswar and other places were affected due to the thick fog cover. “The trains were running late between one to three hours,” an official said.
The Met reports that with this development, not only wintry chill will make a comeback but pollution levels are also expected to spike.
Meanwhile, with a drop in wind speed and the return of fog, the air quality of the national capital turned “severe” on Wednesday, following a fairly long period when strong wind movement had helped keep the pollutants at bay. The air quality index of the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) had Delhi's air in the “severe” category with a reading of 410, which may affect healthy people and seriously impact those with existing respiratory ailments. Private agency Skymet has forecast that pollution levels are likely to increase “manifold” due to change in wind direction, increase in moisture levels and massive drop in wind speed.
The 24-hour-average (rolling) of ultrafine pollutants PM 2.5 and PM 10 were 182 and 343 micrograms per cubic metre respectively, as against the corresponding safe limits of 60 and 100 respectively.
Cold and dry and northwesterly winds are giving way to easterly winds, which will spike the volume of pollutants in Delhi's air, a senior IMD official explained. “The entire Indo-Gangetic Plain is under the blanket of fog. In Delhi, the fog may mix with pollutants to turn into smog. The situation will persist for the next two-three days,” the official said. Teri fellow Sumit Sharma said in the absence of stringent emission control measures, air quality is hugely dependent on meteorology.
