No respite to Delhiites from cold; dense fog and zero visibility in parts of Delhi-NCR, IMD issues Orange alert

Extreme harsh weather conditions and dense fog prevailed in Delhi and parts of National Capital Region (NCR) on Thursday morning as northern India continued to reel under severe cold.

NEW DELHI: Extreme harsh weather conditions and dense fog prevailed in Delhi and parts of the National Capital Region (NCR) on Thursday morning as northern India continued to reel under severe cold.

The minimum temperature was recorded at 3.2℃ in the national capital in the wee hours of Thursday, while at some other places, it was recorded at 4.4 ℃ around 5:30 AM.

Delhi wakes up to dense fog this morning, the current temperature recorded to be at 4.4 degree Celsius.

Visuals from Tikri Border. pic.twitter.com/N0x7KS3OOj — ANI (@ANI) January 14, 2021

Dense fog and near-zero visibility severely affected the normal traffic movement and flight operations at the Delhi airport. At several places in the Delhi-NCR, the visibility was reported to be less than 10 metres.  

Delhi had on Wednesday recorded 4.6 degrees Celsius and 3.2 degrees Celsius respectively at Palam and Safdarjung areas. Dense fog enveloped the city, resulting in very low visibility in several areas. Owing to this, the Delhi Airport initiated low visibility procedures. 

In a tweet, the Delhi Airport tweeted, "Low visibility procedures are in progress at Delhi Airport. All flight operations are currently normal. For further assistance, please get in touch with the airline concerned. Any inconvenience is deeply regretted."

The air quality in the national capital also too took a plunge and was reported 'very poor' by the System of Air Quality and Weather Forecasting and Research (SAFAR) on Wednesday. 

According to the Indian Meteorological Department, there will be no respite to Delhiites as cold weather conditions will prevail in the days to come. The weather office has predicted that the national capital region will be covered with dense fog coupled with cold winds in the days to come.

The Indian Meteorological Department had on Tuesday issued an Orange Alert in view of the cold conditions in North India. Punjab, Haryana, Chandigarh, Gurugram, Hapur, Noida, Delhi will get cold and it will disturb the cold winds.

The weather department said that the northern plains are likely to witness foggy conditions. A large part of the country is set to face intense cold conditions over the next few days, it said. 

"Cold wave/severe cold wave conditions at some parts are also very likely over Punjab, Haryana, Chandigarh and Delhi and in isolated parts over Uttar Pradesh, north Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan during next three days," the IMD said.

The IMD has four colour codes signifying the intensity of weather events. While an orange alert is an indication to be prepared for likely extreme conditions, red is a warning to take action to protect life and property from extremely bad weather.

Green indicates normal conditions and yellow is for keeping a watch for a deterioration in the weather.