Watch out: dense fog to descend this weekend

According to the weatherman, the coming weekend will see the rise of moisture in the city’s air, setting the stage for foggy nights and mornings — enough to disrupt air, rail and road traffic.

Delhi’s first date with dense fog is near.

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According to the weatherman, the coming weekend will see the rise of moisture in the city’s air, setting the stage for foggy nights and mornings — enough to disrupt air, rail and road traffic.

A rainbearing weather system — western disturbance — is approaching Jammu and Kashmir and Himachal Pradesh and will cause snow and rainfall between December 9 and 11. By the look of it, it is healthy enough to have some impact in the Capital, officials said.

There is one small rider to this forecast: wind.

“If the wind speed is more, the fog will be blown away. The weather needs to be calm for fog to settle,” said B.P. Yadav, India Meteorological Depart-ment (IMD) spokesman.

Fog is bad news for those travelling to and from the Capital either by air or rail — which get disrupted severely every year due to fog.

Last year, the airport witnessed 167 hours of fog, over 23 days. An average of 100 flights were delayed each day.

More than 100 trains ran late, and trains got cancelled almost every day stranding thousands of passengers.

But transport officials claim they are ready with measures.

“All preparations are in place to ensure prompt forecasting of fog and issuing of runway visual range information,” said R.K. Jenamani, director, Palam observatory of IMD.

The railways are ready with more detonators (small explosives) to burst on the tracks—an age-old technology to alert drivers about low visibility ahead so that he can run the train even without sighting the signals and tracks.