Delhi Welcomes 2024 With Cloudy Skies; Dense Fog Grips Capital, Adjoining Areas; Flights, Trains Hit

Amid the dropping Mercury levels and dense fog situations, Delhi on Monday welcomed the first day of 2024 with light haze and cloudy skies. However, train and flight services remained impacted in the national capital due to fog. The temperature is likely to remain below 10 degrees Celsius, while the air quality in the city will be in the ‘very poor’ category.

The Indian Railways informed that as many as 21 trains are running late in the national capital due to dense fog resulting in low visibility in the region.

Meanwhile, the India Meteorological Department (IMD) predicted dense fog and cold conditions in Delhi and parts of Punjab on January 1. With the intensifying cold wave conditions across north India, the weather agency on Sunday issued a ‘red alert’ for the capital and the neighbouring states for Monday.

“Very dense fog in isolated pockets of East Uttar Pradesh; Dense fog in isolated places over Uttarakhand and Bihar and Moderate fog in isolated places over Haryana and Chandigarh, Southwest Uttar Pradesh and Northeast Rajasthan,” the weather agency said.

The agency also shared a satellite image of fog layer over Punjab, north Rajasthan, Haryana, Delhi, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, northwest Madhya Pradesh, south Uttarkhand and Sub Himalayan West Bengal.

Cold Wave in North India

According to IMD, cold day conditions are very likely in isolated pockets over Punjab from January 2 to 4, 2024. Haryana will witness cold weather conditions from January 1 to 4, while Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh will also witness a cold day on January 1.

Apart from this, Uttarakhand may also witness dense fog conditions with visibility just upto 50-200 metres till January 4. Srinagar recorded minimum temperature of minus 5.2. Kashmir is in the grip of intense cold wave and most of the water bodies, including Srinagar’s iconic Dal Lake, have frozen partially.

The temperature is likely to dip by 2-3°C over many parts of Central and Northwest India during the next two days.