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Fog woes continue; Aligarh colder than Mussoorie in day
Dense fog and cold temperatures continue to affect many cities in Uttar Pradesh, with Aligarh recording the lowest day temperature in the state. The weather department has issued warnings of dense to very dense fog for Saturday. Visibility is very low in several areas, causing disruptions to flights and trains.
Along with dense fog, the state continued to reel under cold conditions with day temperatures plunging below normal in many cities on Friday. The weather department, meanwhile, has issued warnings of dense to very dense fog for Saturday.
Aligarh, which, at 13.8 degrees Celsius, recorded the lowest day temperatures in the state, was colder even than Mussoorie during daytime. There, the mercury fell 5.9 degrees below normal even as the minimum temperature was recorded at 11.6 degrees (4.2 degrees below normal). Mussorie saw its temperatures fluctuate between 14.2 and 5.7 degrees.
The maximum and minimum temperatures in Bareilly were recorded at 14.5 and 11.6 degrees, respectively. Hardoi (14.6 and 11.5 degrees) and Bahraich (14.8 and 9.6 degrees).
The state capital, meanwhile, saw its temperatures fluctuate between 15.6 and 10.2 degrees. The Met department said Lucknow might continue to experience dense fog during morning hours and partly cloudy skies later with maximum and minimum temperatures of 18 and 10 degrees, respectively. The forecast was provided by Mohd Danish, the in-charge of the Met office in Lucknow.
While the fog’s intensity had reduced, it was quite dense in the first half of the day at several places, said a Met official on Friday.
Visibility was the lowest in Muzaffarnagar (10 metres), followed by Bareilly and Ballia (20m), Agra (30m) and Jhansi, Barabanki and Bahraich (40m). At Lucknow airport and Meerut, the visibility was 50m, 100m at Gorakhpur and Ayodhya, 150m at Lakhimpur Kheri and 200m at Hardoi.
The IMD classifies fog as ‘shallow’ when visibility is between 500m and 1,000m, ‘moderate’ when it is between 200m and 500m, ‘dense’ when it is between 50m and 200m and ‘very dense’ when it is lower than 50m.
The department has issued warnings of dense to very dense fog very likely at a few places in the state amid cold and dry conditions.
Due to poor visibility, five flights were cancelled and nine more delayed at the Lucknow airport.
Trains behind schedule by half a day, more
Several trains continued to run late or had to be rescheduled on Friday due to dense fog at many places. Train no. 02569 Darbangha-New Delhi Special, which covers Gorakhpur, Lucknow and Kanpur in Uttar Pradesh, was running late by 15 hours and 45 minutes.
Similarly, Barauni-New Delhi Special was 13 hours and 20 minutes late.
Likewise, Barauni-New Delhi Express was 19 hours behind its schedule. When this report was filed, it was yet to start from its source station i.e. Barauni. Likewise, Katihar-Amritsar Express Special was five hours late. Similarly, premium train services such as Tejas Express (82501) were delayed by over an hour.
Several other trains such as Farakka Express, Danapur Howrah Express, Amritsar Howrah Mail and Akal Takhat Express that go toward Patna and Kolkata via Lucknow were three-four hours behind schedule.
“The train has still not arrived at its destination even 9 hours later,” said a X user on Thursday.
