Brace for cold wave in Chandigarh, night temperature falls to 7.6°C
Fog hits air operations; 2 flights cancelled, 12 delayed.
Cold wave is likely to grip the city in the next two to three days as the night temperature will fall several notches below normal.
The maximum temperature recorded on Saturday was 15.4 degree, which was seven notches below normal. The temperature increased by two degrees when compared with Friday, which at 13°C was this season’s coldest day.
According to the weatherman, the day temperature is likely to increase by a degree or two in the next two to three days. However, the minimum temperature will witness a dip.
Even as the day temperature saw a consistent decline over the week after the season’s first rain on Monday, the night temperature kept rising due to cloud cover.
However, on Friday night, mercury fell to 7.6°C from 10.5°C the previous night, which was still a degree above normal.
“The night temperature will start declining now and in the next two to three days there is a possibility of cold wave, as it will drop by 5-6°C below normal,” said Surender Paul, director of the India meteorological department’s local centre.
2 flights cancelled, 12 delayed
Even as the weatherman predicted sunshine and clear sky on Sunday, fog will continue to impact visibility in the morning hours. With visibility less than 1,000 metre on Saturday morning, air operations were hit for fourth day at Chandigarh International Airport.
Hundreds of passengers were left stranded after two flights were cancelled while 12 took off late. Many of the delayed fights got delayed by six hours as the operations had to halted till noon.
Both the morning flights of Jet Airways to Delhi — one at 10am and another at 11am — were called off as the aircraft could not land here due to bad weather.
Many travellers who had board trains or flights from Delhi were left stranded.
In fact, the airport’s first flight, which was scheduled at 8am, took off for Delhi after five hours.
Similarly, Spicejet’s Delhi flight at 8:30am was delayed by six hours. The inbound passengers of Dubai-Chandigarh flight too were hassled as the flight landed at the airport after 1pm, instead of the scheduled landing at 10:35am. Jet Airways’ Jaipur flight left the airport at 2pm instead of the scheduled departure of 11:15am.
Air India’s Leh flight at 10am left after 1pm and Spicejet’s Jammu flight took off an hour late.
An airport official said the weather was “very harsh” on Saturday as compared to the past five days.
Meanwhile, airlines are issuing advisories to travellers to check the flight status online or through customer care before reaching the airport.