National capital freezes over
NEWDELHI: Delhi recorded its coldest day ever on Monday, as a thick cover of fog hung over the National Capital Region, throwing life out of gear by disrupting flights and trains, causing a fatal road accident, aggravating air pollution, and increasing the rush of patients at government hospitals.
The Capital has been witnessing an intense cold wave over the past week, a trend that has contradicted the India Meteorological Department’s (IMD) pre-season prediction of a warmer-thanusual winter.
The national weather forecaster said on Monday the maximum temperature was 9.4° Celsius at the Safdarjung Observatory, 11° Celsius below the season’s normal, and the lowest day temperature since 1901, the year of the oldest weather records of IMD. The minimum temperature at the observatory, which is the official marker for the city, was 2.6° Celsius.
“Considering all the months, it has surpassed the previous lowest maximum temperature of 9.8° Celsius recorded on January 2, 2013,” RK Jenamani, senior scientist at the National Weather Forecasting Centre, said in a statement on Monday evening. He said this was the “lowest temperature for all winter seasons so far since 1901”.
For the month of December, the lowest recorded maximum temperature was 11.3°C on December 28, 1997. Until Monday, the lowest maximum temperature in the city this season was 12.2°C last Tuesday. The minimum temperature was 2.4°C on Saturday. All these readings are from the Safdarjang Observatory. Kuldeep Srivastava, head of the regional weather forecasting centre, said the day temperature was almost half of what is considered normal for this day of the year.
Hundreds of passengers were left stranded and taxiways at the Indira Gandhi International Airport remained clogged for hours as the day witnessed one of the worst fog spells of the year, forcing 40 flight cancellations, 21 diversions, and more than 600 delays.
An airport official said that since the visibility remained low, between 50 and 125 metres at the facility, departures had to be put on hold around 3am and they could resume only by 9am, when the visibility went up to around 200 metres.
However, since the arrivals continued under CAT-IIIB, an advanced instrument landing system, it led to congestion on parking bays and taxiways of the airport, causing delays of more than 600 departing flights. The cascading effect of the delays continued till late on Monday evening. Thirty trains were also delayed by two to seven-and-ahalf hours, according to the Indian Railways.
IMD said the national capital witnessed the season’s worst “dense fog” with “visibility of 0-200 metres for a very prolonged period from 2.30am to 12pm”. Shallow to moderate fog covered the Capital later in the day.
Six members of a family from Sambhal in Uttar Pradesh were killed when their car skidded off the road and fell into a canal in Greater Noida on a foggy Sunday night, the police said. The accident appeared to have taken place due to low visibility caused by the fog, they added.
Srivastava said the main reason behind the dip in the temperature was the change in the wind direction from Sunday afternoon.
“Before Sunday, we were getting north-westerly winds but yesterday (Sunday), the wind
THE CAPITAL HAS BEEN WITNESSING AN INTENSE COLD WAVE OVER THE PAST WEEK, A TREND THAT HAS CONTRADICTED THE INDIA METEOROLOGICAL DEPARTMENT’S (IMD) PRE-SEASON PREDICTION
direction changed to easterly. The winds now are coming from Uttar Pradesh, which is also experiencing severe cold days and that is not helping the temperature in Delhi to rise,” he said.
He added that the wind from UP is also bringing moisture, which is also providing the conditions for the formation of dense fog. This condition is likely to continue on Tuesday, Srivastava said. The national capital has been witnessing one of its most unforgiving winter seasons in the last century, experiencing “severe cold days” since December 14, according to IMD.
The average maximum temperature for December 2019 till Monday is 18.6° Celsius, the lowest since December 1997 (when it was 17.3° Celsius) and the secondlowest since 1901.
At the Aya Nagar observatory on Monday, the day temperature was 8.3° Celsius, while at Lodhi Road the maximum temperature was 9.3° Celsius.
To add to the woes of residents, the pollution level also spiked on Monday, with the air quality index in the “severe” category at 446. The intense cold, high humidity and low wind speed allowed the accumulation of pollutants leading to further deterioration in the national capital’s air quality.
The All-India Institute of Medical Sciences has reported a 15-20% increase in the rush at outpatient departments due to coldand pollution-related ailments over the last two weeks.
In Srinagar, the Dal Lake froze over at a minimum of -6.5° Celsius. According to meteorologists, dense fog is hindering sun rays from reaching the ground, and the continuous flow of icy northerly winds are aggravating cold conditions across the plains of north India. INPUTS FROM PTI