New Delhi, January 7
Thick fog enveloped the Capital on Thursday morning disrupting air and rail services and throwing normal life out of gear.

Dense fog reduced runway visibility at the Indira Gandhi International airport to less than 50 metres and crippled affected flight operations, even as the minimum temperature recorded a slight increase.

Hundreds of passengers were left stranded at the airport with several domestic flights and international flights delayed for three to four hours. Airport officials said fog started accumulating in the wee hours and became thick around 6 am.

While general visibility was reduced to zero, runway visibility was less than 50 metres, disrupting the schedules of around 50 domestic and international flights. A minimum of 150- metre visibility is required for a flight to take off.

According to airport officials, between the evening of January 6 and morning of January 7, two international flights and 18 domestic flights were diverted, two domestic flights got cancelled and 12 flights were rescheduled.

Jalandhar, January 7
With not much respite from the bone-chilling cold which got aggravated due to a thick blanket of fog, normal life virtually came to a halt in the northern part of the country on Thursday.

FOGGED OUT: A cyclist braves the chill in Capital on Thursday. — PTI

Mercury plummeted further in the plains and in the high-altitude areas leading to chill in the weather. The region today witnessed a misty morning, with icy winds giving a tough time to commuters, especially those on two-wheelers. Though the residents of Punjab, Haryana and Chandigarh were greeted by a mild sunshine in the afternoon, there was no respite from the cold.“Intense cold wave running through the northern plains has led to a sharp fall in both day and night temperatures. In most parts of the region, the mercury remained two to three degrees below normal,” said a Met official.

The holy city of Amritsar was coldest in the region on Thursday, with a minimum temperature of 1.6 degrees Celsius. The minimum temperatures at Ludhiana and Patiala cities were registered at 5 and 5.7 degrees, respectively.Chandigarh recorded a minimum temperature of 4 degrees, which was 3 degrees below the average. Halwara also saw a decline in the mercury as the city recorded a temperature of 3.8 degrees Celsius.

However, in the Malwa belt, Bathinda witnessed a rise in the mercury with the city recording a temperature of 7.2 degrees Celsius. Pathankot also registered a slight increase in the mercury with a minimum temperature of 8.6 degrees Celsius. In Haryana, minimum temperatures at Ambala, Karnal and Hisar towns were recorded at 3.3, 5.7 and 8.4 degrees, respectively.

Cold conditions returned to Jammu and Kashmir after two days, as night temperature fell below freezing point due to clear sky. The tourist resort of Pahalgam in south Kashmir reeled under minus 6.6 degrees C, a drop by 3.3 degrees. The night temperature also plunged by several degrees throughout the valley with Srinagar recording minus 3.8 degrees C. Ladakh showed no major change in the night temperature with Leh recording minus 19 degrees C while mercury settled in Kargil at minus 17.4 degrees Celsius.

However, there was some respite in Jammu as the minimum temperature was 8.9 degrees Celsius, up by 3 notches. Icy winds intensified cold conditions in Himachal Pradesh where the higher reaches experienced sub-zero temperature. Keylong, the district headquarters of Lahaul and Spiti, was the coldest place in the region with minus 11.2 degrees Celsius.

Shimla, the Queen of Hills, had a low of 5.5 degrees C against 9 degrees yesterday.The Met department at the Adampur Air Force Station has predicted a thick blanket of fog and a partially cloudy sky in the next 24 hours.

“The northern region would witness intense cold wave conditions in the next two to three days thereby increasing the chill in the weather. The situation would improve if clouds are formed leading to rain in the region”, said officials.
(With inputs from Agencies)