Dense fog engulfs Delhi as min temperature drops to 8.8°C; AQI in ‘poor’ category

The India Meteorological Department (IMD) has issued an orange alert for the day and a yellow alert for the weekend, warning people of a moderate to dense fog

Dense fog enveloped Delhi in the early hours of Friday with the minimum temperature dropping to 8.8°C, 1.2°C above the normal. The minimum was 10.3°C on Thursday.

Visibility at Palam dropped to zero by 9:30pm on Thursday and continued to prevail till 3am on Friday. (ANI photo)

The visibility in several parts of the national Capital dropped severely due to dense fog on Friday morning. The India Meteorological Department (IMD) has issued an orange alert for the day and a yellow alert for the weekend, warning people of a moderate to dense fog.

Visibility at Palam dropped to zero by 9:30pm on Thursday and continued to prevail till 3am on Friday with westerly winds of speed 8-10kmph affecting the area, according to IMD.

“Visibility at Palam improved to 50m by 7:30am and 100m by 8:30am. The visibility over Safdarjung remained 200m since 1:30pm, aided by calm winds,” said an IMD official.

IMD classifies it as a shallow fog when visibility is 500m to 1000m, as moderate fog when visibility is 200m to 500m, as dense when visibility ranges from 50m to 200m and as very dense when visibility falls below 50m.

Airport authorities, however, said no flights were cancelled or diverted.

Delhi’s minimum temperature dipped again and was recorded at 8.8°C, 1.2°C above normal.

“Fresh snowfall has been recorded, and the impact of this rain spell will lead to minimum dipping again. It may drop to 6°C by January 19, before the next western disturbance (WD) once again changes the wind direction and causes minimum to rise again,” said an IMD official.

IMD has forecast another western disturbance to start impacting northwest India from January 18 onwards, with chances of another spell of light rain in Delhi on January 21, officials said.

Delhi’s air quality index (AQI), meanwhile, improved to poor on Friday morning. The AQI stood at 294 (poor) at 9am on Friday, as compared to the average AQI of 302 (very poor) at 4pm on Thursday. The AQI was 386 (very poor) at the same time on Wednesday.