The Delhi International Airport Limited (DIAL) said early Wednesday that due to bad weather in Chandigarh, Varanasi and Lucknow, flights are returned back or diverted to Delhi. "Visibility of Delhi airport is normal, flight operations are smooth," it said. In an advisory, the Delhi airport requested flyers to "contact the airlines concerned for updated flight information".

In a travel advisory, IndiGo said, "Fights may get impacted due to poor visibility due to winters. Passengers must keep a tab on flight status. Passengers requested to keep extra time in hand while travelling to the Airport."

Also, some trains arriving in Delhi from Uttar Pradesh, Assam, West Bengal, Jammu, Madhya Pradesh and Bihar have been running late by at least two to three hours, News 18 reported.

Fog continued to engulf parts of Delhi, Punjab, Haryana, Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh (UP) on Wednesday. "Satellite imagery shows continuation of dense fog layer from Punjab and Northwest Rajasthan to East UP across Haryana. Gray circled cloud patch, over central parts of West UP, is Medium and High clouds associated with middle tropospheric level westerly," the India Meteorological Department (IMD) said.

As per the weather department, the visibility (meters) recorded at 5:30 am on Wednesday was: "Amritsar-25, Bhatinda-0, Ganganagar-25, Ambala-50, Bareilly-25, Bahraich-50, Varanasi-50". Very dense fog is when visibility is between 0 and 50 metres, 51 and 200 is dense, 201 and 500 moderate, and 501 and 1,000 shallow. Visibility at Delhi airport improved to 350 metres later in the day "due to south-western winds & consequent rise in temperature".

(Source: IMD)

Cold wave conditions will continue over Himachal Pradesh, Punjab, Haryana and North Rajasthan during the next five days, the IMD said. Severe cold wave and fog alerts have been issued in these states:

Delhi

Dense to very dens fog at many places are likely in parts of the national capital on Wednesday. The maximum and minimum temperatures would be recorded around 22 and 06 degrees celsius respectively. The minimum and maximum temperatures are likely to drop to five degrees Celsius and 20 degrees Celsius in the next few days.

Punjab

IMD predicted "cold wave to severe cold wave conditions at isolated places and dense to very dense fog at many places" in Punjab. Parts of the state are on red alert due to heavy fog. Tarn Taran, Jalandhar, Ludhiana and Patiala are likely tto see very dense fog.

Haryana

Parts of Haryana, including Fatehbad, Hisar, Bhiwani, Kaithal,, Karnal and Sonipat are on orange alert.

Uttar Pradesh

It will be a "cold day" in parts of Uttar Pradesh on Wednesday. Also, dense to very dense fog is expected to blanket isolated places. Most of the regions in the state is on orange alert, prdicting dense fog. These areas include Moradabad, Pilhibit, Baranbanki, Fatehpur, Bahraich, Pratapgarh, Amethi and

First Published:Dec 21, 2022 8:02 AM IST