Dense fog engulfs Delhi-NCR amid orange alert; 110 flights delayed at IGI
NEW DELHI: Dense to very dense fog engulfed parts of Delhi-NCR on Wednesday morning, causing extremely low visibility. The dense fog has impacted the movement of trains and flights to and from the national capital.
At least 110 flights, including both domestic and international arrivals and departures, have been delayed at IGI due to the fog.
The movement of trains has also been impacted due to low visibility.The India Meteorological Department (IMD) has issued an orange alert for today and a yellow alert for Thursday for dense to very dense fog. Fog is classified as dense when visibility is between 50 metres and 200 metres.
The IMD has forecasted foggy weather for the next three days. Tuesday too witnessed dense fog that reduced visibility at Palam to 50 metres. Along with that, Delhiites would breathe in excessively polluted air that could be in the “severe” AQI range on Wednesday.
The temperature on Wednesday is likely to be 24 degrees Celsius at the maximum and 7 at the minimum. Although the skies will remain clear, a low ventilation index and unfavourable wind speed will mean that pollutants in the air are unlikely to get dispersed.
On Tuesday morning, visibility at Palam remained abysmally low till 10 am. The visibility at Safdarjung was 200 metres.
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“The fog will continue for the next few days. On Wednesday, there are chances of dense to very dense fog. The condition will remain so with visibility of 50 metres of lower during morning in all of north-west India, including Punjab, Haryana, Delhi-NCR, western and eastern UP and northern Rajasthan. The fog occurred due to night moisture, clear skies and low wind speed,” Kuldeep Srivastava, a scientist with IMD, said.
The air quality, although not severe on Tuesday, was in the “very poor” range at 377, which was a marginal improvement from 383 on Monday.
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The air quality early warning system has predicted the “severe” AQI for Wednesday, saying that it could remain “in the severe category from Thursday to Friday”.
For the next 6 days, “the predominant surface wind is likely to be from the north-west direction in Delhi with wind speeds up to 6 kmph, clear skies and dense to very dense fog in the morning on Thursday,” said IITM’s air quality early warning system. It added that the ventilation index is likely to be 950 m2/s on Wednesday, 800 m2/s on Thursday and 950 m2/s on Friday over Delhi. A ventilation index lower than 6000 m2/s with average wind speed less than 10 kmph is unfavourable for dispersion of pollutants.
The IITM’s decision support system showed that 16% of the city’s total PM2.5 level was because of transport, 7% because of industries and 27% because of other sources.
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Delhi is facing the Graded Response Action Plan (GRAP) Stage III (severe category) curbs right now. This means construction and demolition has been halted and BS III petrol and BS IV diesel vehicles are barred from roads. The Commission for Air Quality Management (CAQM), which decides on the level of restrictions, said it will wait and watch before invoking GRAP Stage IV.
On Tuesday, the minimum temperature was recorded at 7 degrees Celsius, a notch below the normal, which is 7.6 degrees Celsius, recorded a day earlier. The maximum temperature was 23.8 degrees Celsius, three notches above normal, against 23.6 degree a day earlier.
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