New Delhi: The India Meteorological Department reported that visibility remained poor in several areas of Delhi due to heavy fog as residents awoke to a chilly morning with the minimum temperature recorded at 8 degrees Celsius, two notches below the normal (IMD). The IMD has forecast cold wave conditions for the next three days over the northern states, along with dense to extremely dense fog over the plains in northwest India during that time. Visibility in several regions of the national capital remained low on Tuesday due to the cold wave and foggy conditions. There were reports of 21 trains headed for Delhi being delayed because of poor visibility.
Due to dense fog, the low visibility process was also started at Indira Gandhi International Airport on the night between Monday and Tuesday. There have been delays on 12 flights at least. The national capital's Air Quality Index (AQI) was registered at 348 and falls under the "extremely poor" category. An AQI of 0 to 50 is considered to be acceptable, 101 to 200 satisfactory, 201 to 300 bad, 301 to 400 very poor, and 401 to 500 severe.
"For the next 3 days, surface wind speed (Calm to 12 km/h) and temperature (Max 19-18 deg C; Min 6-4 deg C) are likely to worsen air quality. Mixing layer height is likely to be 1.0 km that helps dilution of pollutants," said the System of Air Quality and Weather Forecasting and Research.
The lowest temperature will decrease by 2-3 degrees Celsius over the next two days, according to IMD, with no other substantial changes in the weather expected. The country will see mostly dry weather over the next few days, however from January 7 to January 9, isolated to scattered rainfall is expected over Tamil Nadu and Kerala.
