Delhi logs 13 hrs of dense fog as rail, flight ops take a hit

A dense fog blanketed the Capital for nearly 13 straight hours making it the longest spell of dense fog this season, weather officials said on Thursday, even as the India Meteorological Department sounded a “red alert” for dense to very dense fog between 4am and 10am on Friday, urging motorists to exercise caution.

- Jasjeev Gandhiok

The fog that began descending late on Wednesday evening reduced visibility below 200 metres at Palam around 8.30pm and fell to just 50 metres at 10pm — remaining in this range till Thursday morning — throwing rail and flight operations in the city out of gear. The prevailing weather conditions also continued to entrap local pollutants and the city clocked a 24-hour average air quality index of 358 (very poor).

“Visibility began to dip rapidly from Wednesday evening and dropped from 800 metres at 5.30 pm at Palam, and 100 metres by 8.30pm, improving only as wind speed was good,” said Kuldeep Srivastava, scientist at IMD, adding that no significant change in the weather is expected on Friday.

“For the last two days, including Thursday, we had an orange alert. This has been upgraded to ‘red’ for Friday to warn people to be cautious while driving, particularly between 4am and 10am, when the visibility could go down to zero in places. People should drive slowly and use fog lights if possible,” Srivastava added.

Over 100 flights were delayed since late Wednesday evening. However, despite bad weather, no flight diversions or cancellations were reported at Delhi’s Indira Gandhi International Airport.