Chilly weather in Delhi; fog disrupts rail, air services

New Delhi: Chilly weather persisted in the national capital today even as dense fog disrupted flight operations at the IGI Airport here and led to the cancellation of 50 Delhi-bound trains.

The minimum temperature was recorded at 7.5 degrees Celsius, normal for this time of the season, while the maximum settled at 16.3 degrees Celsius, five notches below the season's average.

It was down by 5.9 degrees from yesterday's maximum of 22.2 degrees Celsius, said a MeT department official.

Dense foggy conditions affected the visibility which was recorded 100 metres both at 5.30 AM and 8.30 AM. It was recorded at 500 metres at 11.30 AM and further at 800 metres at 2.30 AM.

According to Northern Railway officials, 50 Delhi-bound trains including the premiere Rajdhani and Shatabdi Express were cancelled due to dense fog while 20 of them were reported to be running behind schedule.

Operations at Delhi airport were also severely affected as the visibility dropped to zero and remained so both at 5.30 AM and 8.30 AM, thus delaying several domestic flights.

"It partially improved to 100 metres at 11.30 AM and further to 900 metres at 2.30 PM and remained the same at 5.30 PM," the official said.

"Three international flights including 2 of Air India and one of Spicejet were diverted as the aircraft were not Cat-III B enabled," airport authorities said.

CAT-III B allows the aircraft to land in visibility as low as 50 metres.

Humidity levels oscillated between 69 and 100 per cent.

The MeT office has predicted partly cloudy skies for tomorrow.

"The skies will be partly cloudy. Moderate to dense fog would occur in several parts of the city while very dense foggy conditions may be witnessed in isolated areas in the morning and forenoon.

"The maximum and minimum temperatures are likely to hover at 17 and 7 degrees Celsius," the weatherman said.

Yesterday, the national capital had recorded a minimum temperature of 4.6 degrees Celsius while the maximum settled at 22.2 degrees.