Cold wave grips North India; Delhi experiences worst fog in 3 years

New Delhi: Delhiites experienced the worst fog in three years on Monday morning affecting air, road and rail traffic in the national capital.

The Indira Gandhi International Airport (IGI) airport was forced to shut down partially for around three hours early Monday after extremely poor visibility on the runway. The flights are expected to resume as soon as the visibility improves. Around 150 domestic and international flights were cancelled or delayed from 8 pm on Sunday night to 8 am today morning causing inconvenience to passengers who were stranded at the airport. A SpiceJet flight from Goa to Delhi, with 132 passengers and four crew onboard, had to make an emergency landing at around 9.50 PM as it ran short on fuel. Even movement of trains was affected after at least 40 trains bound for Delhi got delayed. Around 10 other trains in other parts of northern India were also rescheduled due to thick fog. However, respite is in store for Delhiites as the Met department has predicted shallow fog but clear sky in the later part of the day. The maximum and minimum temperature are expected to be around 16 degrees Celsius. Cold Wave in North India Uttar Pradesh The cold wave continued to grip northern India with states like Uttar Pradesh facing similar fog conditions where several flights were cancelled and over two dozen trains were delayed. The night night temperature hovered between 1.3 to 3 degrees Celsius with maximum temperature being 19.3 degrees Celsius and minimum was 7.4 degrees Celsius. Kahmir Kashmir Valley and Ladakh region experience slight relief from freezing cold as the night temperature increased. Srinagar received 2.3 mm snowfall and recorded a minimum temperature of minus 2.3 degrees Celsius. While Gulmarg recorded a temperature of minus 9.7 degrees Celsius, it received 3.5 mm of snow last night. Kupwara experienced a minimum temperature of minus 1.8 degrees Celsius while Qazigund minus 4.6 degrees Celsius and 2.4 mm snowfall. Leh continued to experience cold weather with a minimum temperature of minus 7.9 degrees Celsius. Met department has predicted cloudy day for Monday without any rainfall. Snowfall is expected in the area on January 8 and 9. Haryana Hisar recorded coldest night in the past few years with minus 2.1 degrees Celsius, which was seven degrees below normal temperature. the minimum temperature in Karnal was 2 degrees Celsius while Bhiwani experienced a minimum temperature of 2.6 deg C. Punjab The minimum temperatures in Amritsar and Adampur were recorded at 0.3 deg C and 1.5 deg C.