Delhi Witnesses Moderate to Dense Fog on New Year's Eve, Several Trains Hit Due to Cold-Wave | Weather Updates

Delhi woke up to moderate to dense blankets of fog on New Year’s eve. While several trains coming to, from and through the national capital were delayed due to the foggy condition.

The India Meteorological Department (IMD), earlier, issued a cold-day alert for Delhi for the weekend. The weather department said, “Cold-day conditions are very likely in some to many parts of Delhi on December 30 and 31.”

The IMD also said that there is a high chance of “cold wave” in isolated pockets of Delhi, starting from the second week of January.

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• Dense fog greeted people across Delhi-NCR on New Year’s eve. IMD on Saturday had predicted that a layer of moderate to dense fog is likely to blanket the national capital on Sunday as well.
• Operations of several trains were hit due to the cold wave. Passengers at the Anand Vihar Railway Station expressed concern over the issue and said, “Trains are stopping at the outer of every big station. This is the major problem. This should be sorted out.”
• More than 20 trains delayed due to fog, wih Sachkhand Expressed being behind by over 21 hours. Closely following this, Bhopal Shatabdi is delayed by at least 10 hours. Loco pilots are following restricted speed advisory in areas with comparatively heavy fog.
• Other trains like Gorakhdham, Mahabodhi, Shram Shakti, Poorva, GT, and Malwa Express are all running late.
• The IMD, earlier, had issued a ‘cold-day’ alert for the December 30 and 31.
• Visibility on Saturday was 200 metres at Delhi’s main weather station, Safdarjung and 500 metres at the Ridge, the IMD said.
• Yesterday, train services were hit due to the foggy condition for the fourth consecutive day with 30 Delhi-bound trains getting delayed.
•  Saturday’s maximum temperature settled at 20.3 degrees Celsius, while the minimum temperature was 11.8 degrees Celsius, which was five notches above the season’s average, the IMD noted.
• According to IMD’s forecast, the sky is likely to remain partly cloudy and the maximum and minimum temperatures are expected to settle at around 19 and 11 degrees Celsius.
• IMD said that zero visibility was recorded in Jorhat, Pathankot, Jammu, Agra and Bhatinda on Sunday morning. Visibility in Ambala was recorded at 25 metres, in Bikaner, Patiala, Chandigarh, Gwalior, Jhansi, Amritsar and Hisar at 200 metres.
• Meanwhile, the air quality index (AQI) on Saturday worsened to 400, close to the ‘severe’ category. Forecasts further warned that the AQI is likely to worsen further if people burst firecrackers on New Year’s eve.
• Aside from this, Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand and Jammu-Kashmir-Ladakh-Gilgit-Baltistan-Muzaffarbad are likely to experience light isolated rainfall or snowfall on Sunday.

(With PTI inputs)