Delhi-NCR found itself shrouded in a dense fog on Wednesday morning, causing visibility to plummet to nearly zero. The relentless cold wave persisted in the national capital region, pushing the minimum temperature to a chilly 7 degrees Celsius within the city.The adverse weather conditions significantly affected air travel, leading to delays and diversions at the Indira Gandhi International (IGI) Airport. The situation prompted the Delhi airport website to flag delays for flights bound to various destinations, including Warsaw, Dubai, Kuwait, Kathmandu, London, and Mauritius. Arrivals from Baku, Abu Dhabi, Milan, Addis Ababa, and Doha also faced delays.For the second consecutive day, dense fog disrupted visibility, causing chaos in both air and rail travel across the national capital. The IGI Airport witnessed a drop in visibility to a mere 50 meters, leading to delays and diversions. Notably, 11 flights were diverted to Jaipur, and one found an alternate route to Lucknow between 6 am and 12 pm.The India Meteorological Department (IMD) has categorised fog cover based on visibility. When visibility drops below 50 meters, it falls under the classification of very dense fog, while visibility ranging from 199 meters to 50 meters is labelled as dense fog.*Temperature (24-hr Tendency ℃) over Delhi recorded at 0530 hrs IST of today, the 27th December:*Palam: 11.4 (0.0)Safdarjung: 11.0 (2.6) @moesgoi @ndmaindia @PIB_India @airnewsalerts— India Meteorological Department (@Indiametdept) December 27, 2023Whats happening at the AirportAs of 10 am on Tuesday, the RVRs at the airport measured between 125 to 275 meters, signalling CAT-III dense fog conditions. This dense fog scenario further exacerbated the flight delays and disruptions in both arrivals and departures.The Delhi airports challenges persisted throughout the day, with additional flights facing delays. By evening, 14 flights arriving from San Francisco, Doha, Dubai, Kathmandu, Dhaka, Melbourne, Tokyo, Colombo, Sharjah, Sydney, and Bangkok experienced delays. Simultaneously, nine departures from Delhi to London, Dhaka, Bangkok, Jeddah, Dubai, and Doha were also affected.Visibility recorded at 0530 hours IST of today, the 27th December (m): Punjab: Amritsar-0, Patiala-25 Uttar Pradesh: Bareilly-25, Lucknow-25, Paryagraj-25 & Varanasi-50, Jhansi-200 Madhya Pradesh: Gwalior-200 Rajasthan: Ganganagar-50 Delhi Safdarjung-50 Delhi (Palam)-125. pic.twitter.com/hY5dCs6Zck— India Meteorological Department (@Indiametdept) December 27, 2023Domestic flights to Chennai and Shimla encountered delays, while a Lucknow-bound flight unfortunately faced cancellation. Arrivals from Chandigarh, Bengaluru, Mumbai, Lucknow, Jaipur, and Ahmedabad also experienced delays due to the challenging weather conditions.Extensive flight delaysFlightradar24, the real-time global flight tracking portal, reported a staggering 301 delays and 7 cancellations at Delhi airport on Tuesday morning. As the day progressed, the number of delayed departures and arrivals climbed to 485 and 306, respectively, with an additional 17 cancellations. In total, a whopping 715 flights grappled with delays.Trains facing delaysMeanwhile, Northern Railways reported delays in 14 trains heading towards Delhi from Puri, Howrah, Kanpur, Allahabad, Azamgarh, Bhagalpur, Gaya, Dibrugarh, Durg, Chennai, Hyderabad, Habibganj, Khajuraho, and Vasco.
