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Air, rail traffic hit as Chandigarh sees season’s first dense fog
Chandigarh-Delhi morning flight cancelled, while flight from Pune diverted to Delhi and seven other flights delayed; morning Shatabdi to Delhi delayed by an hour
After reasonably better visibility than Punjab and Haryana in previous days, Chandigarh experienced the season’s first dense fog on Thursday morning that disrupted air traffic.
Chances of dense fog are likely to continue in the coming days as well, the India Meteorological Department (IMD) said.
Also read: Flight from France: ‘Returnees’ in Punjab tighlipped fearing action
Visibility dropped to 25 metres at 8.30am in Chandigarh. Below 50 metres visibility is considered dense fog. The fog cleared up as the day wore on and residents enjoyed a sunny afternoon.
Because of the fog blanket, night temperature saw a slight increase. The minimum temperature went up from 8.2 degrees on Wednesday to 8.8 degrees on Thursday.
Visibility was at 25 metres at Ambala and 50 metres in Karnal in Haryana.
In Punjab, zero visibility was reported in Bathinda, while Amritsar and Patiala reported visibility up to 25 metres.
Delays and disruptions
The Chandigarh-Delhi Shatabdi Express was also delayed by around an hour in the morning.
Nine morning flights were affected due to the fog. The Chandigarh-Delhi flight 62157 was cancelled. Flight 6E5261 to Mumbai, which was scheduled for 5.55am, departed at 7.26am, while flight 6E867 to Hyderabad flew out at 7.54pm instead of 6.20am. Flight UK668 to Delhi left at 7.42am instead of 6.55am and flight 6E146 to Lucknow departed at 8.13am instead of the scheduled 7.10am.
The Pune-Chandigarh flight 6E242 was diverted to Delhi, while flight 6E6633, which was to arrive from Bengaluru at 7.55am, reached at 10.53am. Flight UK653 from Mumbai, scheduled to arrive at 8.20am, landed at 10.30am.
Minimum above normal
The minimum temperatures settled a notch above normal limits at most places. In Punjab, Ludhiana recorded a low of 10.3 degrees Celsius, five notches above normal. Patiala’s minimum was 9 degrees Celsius, while Amritsar recorded a low of 8.9 degrees. Bathinda, Pathankot and Faridkot also recorded above normal minimum temperatures at 9 degrees, 9 degrees Celsius and 9.5 degrees Celsius, respectively.
However, Gurdaspur experienced a cold night at 6.5 degrees Celsius.
In Haryana, Ambala recorded a minimum of 9.4 degrees Celsius, three notches above normal.
Hisar, Karnal, Rohtak and Sirsa also recorded above normal minimum temperature at 9.1, 9.4, 10.2 and 11 degrees Celsius, respectively.
Bhiwani, however, experienced a cold night at 7.1 degrees Celsius.
