India / 46 flights diverted, 17 trains delayed amid dense fog in Delhi

Dense fog disrupted several flights and trains in Delhi as the weatherman forecast light rain or drizzle in the national capital on Saturday. Officials said in a statement on Saturday 46 flights were diverted due to dense fog at the Delhi airport till midnight on Friday. 17 trains to north India were running late due to operational reasons. More than 300 departing and incoming flights were delayed on Friday stranded hundreds of passengers at Delhi airport early on Friday as visibility dropped to as low as 50 metres.

The flight operations at the airport have been affected due to bad weather. While takeoffs and landings continue, some flights are impacted due to crew operational limitations. The India Meteorological Department (IMD) said dense fog was observed at isolated pockets over Haryana, Delhi, Uttar Pradesh, Jharkhand, Punjab, Bihar, Assam and Meghalaya 

Very dense fog was also seen at isolated pockets over north Rajasthan, Punjab and Chandigarh.

The maximum and minimum temperatures in the national capital will hover around 15 and 8 degrees Celsius respectively, according to IMD. The air quality in Delhi was in the ‘severe’ category on Friday owing to reduced wind speed, dense fog and low temperature. The overall air quality index (AQI) in Delhi was 432 on Friday, a considerable spike from Thursday’s 362, which is considered to be in the ‘very poor’ category.

“From tomorrow (Saturday) afternoon the AQI is expected to improve. The temperature will increase tomorrow, but from Monday there will be a dip in temperature again,” a senior IMD scientist said. System of Air Quality and Weather Forecasting and Research (SAFAR), ministry of earth science’s weather and air quality forecasting centre, also said that wind speeds will remain low till Saturday afternoon, after which the rain in certain parts of Delhi-NCR will improve conditions.

“AQI is likely to deteriorate further in severe category till tomorrow (Saturday) afternoon. Decrease in minimum temperature is forecasted, conditions are favourable for dense fog formation,” the forecast read. “Increase in wind speed is forecasted and there is a possibility for scattered rain over Delhi region by tomorrow night,” it said.