Ludhiana wakes up to foggy morning as mercury dips

The minimum temperature on Saturday was 12 degrees Celsius; the India Meteorological Department’s Chandigarh centre has said that fog would be seen in late evening hours soon

With the minimum temperature falling, the city was covered by a layer of fog on late Saturday evening and early hours of Sunday. The minimum temperature on Saturday was 12 degrees Celsius. According to Surender Paul, director of the India Meteorological Department’s (IMD) Chandigarh centre, the region received mild fog as the minimum temperature decreased. He said that in the coming days, fog would be seen during the late evening hours.

The Ferozepur road enveloped in fog in Ludhiana on Sunday. (Gurpreet Singh/HT)

According to the IMD, the visibility on Sunday morning was 1,000 m, which Paul said was considered low visibility. In anticipation of foggy mornings and evenings ahead, the traffic police have started asking transporters to take necessary measures to prevent accidents. ACP (traffic) Gurdev Singh said the bus, truck and load carrier operators have been asked to put 50 mm reflective tape, white in the front, red from behind, yellow to the sides, on their vehicles so that they reflect back light during fog from all sides.

He said that he had written to the Ludhiana Municipal Corporation to put reflective tape on the medians on the bridges across the city so that the commuters have an idea of reflectors when visibility drops even further. He said that one of the issues commuters faced, and contributed to accidents, was the accumulation of moisture on the front visors of cars from the inside in winter. This, he said, reduced whatever little visibility is available.

“People should learn how to deal with this before venturing out in fog,” he added.