North India Gripped by Cold Wave and Dense Fog; Flight Operations Hit

In the national capital, the highest temperature was recorded at 16.9 o C in Delhi which was approximately 5.3 degrees below normal and was the coldest day in the season so far which met the requirements of a cold day, as defined by the India Meteorological Department (IMD). To make the weather situation worse, the air quality index (AQI) of the city skyrocketed to 410 towards the end of Saturday night, which is categorically in the severe range.

An aerial image filmed on Sunday morning displayed a widespread and continuous fog over the area between Kashmir to Punjab, Haryana, Delhi, Uttarakhand, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Jharkhand and West Bengal, and reaching to portions of Madhya Pradesh- covering one of the most populated areas in the world.

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Incidents of flight and transport disruptions persist

Flight operations in Indira Gandhi International Airport, Delhi were disrupted on the fifth consecutive day. Authorities stated that 66 incoming flights and 63 outgoing were cancelled with hundreds more being delayed. Flightradar24 data indicated that more than 220 arrivals and 400 departures were delayed throughout the day and the mean delay time was more than 30 minutes.

Flight schedules could still be hit by the low visibility due to dense fog which was warned by the Airports Authority of India (AAI). It was recommended that the travelers should keep in touch with airlines to obtain real time information and dedicated passenger facilitation teams were placed in affected airports.

Traffic Impacted on Road and Rail

Traffic on the road and rail was also hampered by thick fog. After a series of recent vehicle pile-ups on highways and driving expressways, the Union road transport ministry gave precautionary text notifications to vehicle owners and driving licence holders, asking them to be extra careful when driving in low-visibility conditions.

The rail services were also not spared and long distance trains and premium trains that arrived at New Delhi Railway Station were delayed by four to six hours especially those traveling towards the north and east directions.

Three individuals were killed and three others injured after being struck by a train in the Nadia district of West Bengal in thick fog when they were on their way to attend a political rally, officials said.

The Reason why the Cold Conditions Linger

The IMD officials have attributed the long bouts of cold and fog to a subtropical westerly jet stream, with the wind speed in the higher levels of the atmosphere hitting 105 knots (approximately 195 kmph). This has enabled cold air invasion and restricted daytime sunshine, causing the existence of cold daytime weather.

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“A cold day is declared when temperatures fall below 10°C and the maximum temperature remains 4.5 to 6.4 degrees below normal. A severe cold day occurs when the departure exceeds 6.5 degrees,” the IMD explained.

Weather Alerts Issued

The IMD has given red alert to Uttar Pradesh and predicted that the day conditions of dense fog and severe cold weather would continue until December 24. The second-highest notification is orange alerts, in which the residents and authorities of Delhi, Haryana, Chandigarh, and Uttarakhand have been warned to be ready to incur future disruptions.

According to the warnings of the meteorologists, the weather might become a little better, but the dense or even very dense fog is likely to reappear between 25 and 27 December, which denotes that the issues concerning the weather can be observed until the end of the last week of the month.

The police have advised the citizens to exercise caution when walking about at early mornings and late nights and to be aware of the weather warnings.

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