Dense fog engulfs Delhi-NCR, visibility drops to zero at several places

Delhi woke up to bone-chilling cold on Monday and a dense layer of fog enveloped the city and its adjoining areas, making the visibility zero at several places.

The minimum temperature in Safdarjung docked at 2.6 degrees Celsius at 8:45 am, while in Palam it was 2.9 degrees Celsius. The temperature in Lodhi Road was recorded at 2.2 degrees Celsius and in Aya Nagar at 2.5 degrees Celsius.

Rail operations in the Northern Railway region and flight operations at the Delhi Airport were disrupted due to poor visibility.

"Low visibility procedures are still in progress. All CAT III B compliant pilots are able to operate. Departures may be impacted if Runway Visibility Range falls below 125m. Please get in touch with the airline concerned for updated flight information. Any inconvenience caused is deeply regretted," said Delhi Airport in a statement.

Dense fog affected traffic movement this morning and commuters were seen driving with emergency lights due to low visibility on the roads.

Students in the Vasant Vihar area struggled to reach their schools due to dense fog and poor visibility.

"We are unable to see any car or bus on the roads due to dense fog but still we have to go to school. We missed our bus today and got late for school," said a student.

The Air Quality Index (AQI) at several places in the capital city - 462 in Anand Vihar and 494 in Okhla Phase-2 - was in the 'severe' category.

"Cold day to severe cold day conditions very likely in many pockets over Punjab, Haryana, Chandigarh and Delhi, Uttar Pradesh and Bihar and cold day in isolated pockets over Rajasthan, Uttarakhand and West Madhya Pradesh," said IMD in its weather bulletin.

"Cold wave conditions very likely in isolated pockets over Punjab, Haryana, Chandigarh and Delhi, Sub-Himalayan West Bengal and Sikkim, Odisha, Jharkhand, Bihar and East Rajasthan," IMD added.

The weather agency has also predicted dense to very dense fog in some pockets very likely over Punjab, Haryana, Chandigarh and Delhi, in isolated pockets over north Rajasthan, Bihar and Assam and Meghalaya and dense fog in isolated pockets over Uttarakhand, Himachal Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, north Madhya Pradesh and Nagaland, Manipur, Mizoram and Tripura.

"Visibility recorded at 0530 hours: Jammu, Ambala, Churu, Agra, Gwalior, Delhi (Palam),Varanasi-0-25 each; Amritsar, Ganganagar, Patiala, Chandigarh, Bareilly, Jhansi, Purnea, Gaya, Bhagalpur, Satna-50 each; Bikaner, Delhi (Safdarjung), Sultanpur, Malda, Kailashahar-200 each," said IMD in a tweet.