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Visibility drops to zero in Delhi-NCR
Safdarjung, representative of Delhi’s weather, recorded moderate fog at 1.30am, with visibility dropping to 200m at the same time, which further dropped to 50m at 7am and dipped to zero by 8am. Safdarjung had last reported zero visibility on January 15, 2025, between 8am and 10am
New Delhi: Aided by calm winds, a dense blanket of fog engulfed Delhi-NCR on Saturday morning, with parts of the national Capital recording zero visibility. The India Meteorological Department (IMD) has issued a yellow alert for Sunday, warning people of moderate to dense fog in the early hours of the day.
Visibility at Palam dropped to 150m by 1.30am on Saturday, with the wind speed varying between 2-3 kmph. Later, the visibility dropped to 50m by 5.30 am and remained the same till 8am. It improved to 100m by 9am, when the wind speed was 4kmph, according to IMD.
Safdarjung, representative of Delhi’s weather, recorded moderate fog at 1.30am, with visibility dropping to 200m at the same time, which further dropped to 50m at 7am and dipped to zero by 8am. Safdarjung had last reported zero visibility on January 15, 2025, between 8am and 10am. The visibility at Safdarjung improved to 200m at about 9am.
IMD classifies it as shallow fog when visibility is 500m to 1000m, as moderate fog when visibility is 200m to 500m, as dense fog when visibility ranges from 50m to 200m and as very dense fog when visibility falls below 50m.
According to the Delhi airport authorities, no flights were diverted or cancelled due to fog. However, over 200 flights were delayed on Saturday.
“The extremely calm wind conditions are aiding the formation of dense to very dense fog. A yellow alert has been issued for Sunday, warning people of moderate fog in most places and dense fog in some isolated places of Delhi,” an IMD official said.
“A fresh western disturbance is likely to affect Northwest India from February 3, leading to light rain or drizzle in the evening on Monday and light rain, accompanied by thunderstorm on February 4,” the Met official added.
The minimum, meanwhile, went up by a couple notches and was recorded at 10.2°C, 1.8°C above normal. The minimum was 8.4°C a day earlier.
The maximum temperature was recorded at 26.2°C, 3.9°C above normal and 0.8°C lower than the maximum recorded a day before.
The Capital’s air quality continued to remain in the ‘very poor’ category, on account of calm winds. The 24-hour average air quality index (AQI) was recorded at 355 (very poor) at 4pm on Saturday, according to the Central Pollution Control Board’s daily national bulletin. The AQI was 351 (very poor) a day before.
The Air Quality Early Warning System (AQEWS) for Delhi has forecast that the AQI will remain in the ‘very poor’ category for the next few days.
“The air quality is likely to be in the ‘very poor’ category from Sunday to Tuesday. The outlook for the subsequent six days is that the air quality is likely to be in the ‘very poor’ to ‘poor’ category,” said the AQEWS bulletin on Saturday evening.
