Delhi: Dense fog brings down visibility in the national capital region; rail services impacted

Dense fog continued to cover parts of the national capital region on Saturday morning reducing visibility to as low as 100 metres.

"Today, fog layer was seen over mainly over Punjab, north Rajasthan, Haryana and Delhi and other regions like Uttar Pradesh are free from dense layer of fog. Another layer is seen over some parts of Bihar," India Meteorological Department (IMD) said in a tweet.

It further highlighted the visibility reported at 05:30 am Indian Standard Time (IST) on December 24, 2022. Delhi's Palam recorded visibility of 100 metres while Safdarganj reported a visibility of 200 metres, as per IMD.

According to a report by PTI, a total of 14 trains were running late by 1.30 to 3.30 hours, railway officials said. It added that the Safdarjung observatory, the national capital's primary weather station, recorded the minimum temperature at 5.4 degrees celsius, three notches below the season's normal.

Among other cities, the visibility was 25 metres at Patiala (Punjab) and Ganganagar (Rajasthan), and 50 metres at Churu (Rajasthan). Ambala too had a visibility of 200 metres in the morning of December 24.

On Friday, IMD, in an official statement, had said that dense to very dense fog in many or most pockets is likely to continue over Punjab, Haryana, Chandigarh and Uttar Pradesh in the night or morning hours during the next 48 hours. This is due to persistence of high moisture and light winds at lower tropospheric levels over Indo-Gangetic plains, it added.

According to the IMD 'very dense' fog is when visibility is between 0 and 50 metres, 51 and 200 is 'dense', 201 and 500 'moderate', and 501 and 1,000 'shallow'.

Meanwhile, the Air Quality Index (AQI) of the national capital stood at 364 at 9 am, as per the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB).

An AQI between zero and 50 is considered "good", 51 and 100 "satisfactory", 101 and 200 "moderate", 201 and 300 "poor", 301 and 400 "very poor" and 401 and 500 "severe".

(With inputs from PTI)

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