Over 100 flights were reportedly delayed as ‘dense’ fog blanketed Delhi-NCR and hit flight operations in the national capital.
The visibility recorded at the Indira Gandhi International (IGI) airport was 50 meters at 8 am, while the visibility at the Hindon commercial airport dropped to zero on Saturday morning.
At least 125 flights departing from IGI airport were delayed with an average delay time of half an hour, while seven flights were cancelled at 8 am, according to flight tracking website, Flightradar 24.
Additionally, 21 flights arriving at Delhi were delayed, and seven flights were cancelled, as per Flightradar 24.
The Delhi Airport issued a passenger advisory at 8 am, stating that flights which don’t have the mechanism to land or take off in low visibility conditions might be affected.
An ‘orange’ alert was issued in Delhi on Saturday by the India Meterological Department (IMD) due to ‘dense’ fog at most places and ‘very dense’ fog at isolated places.
The IMD forecasted a minimum temperature of 10 degrees Celsius and a maximum temperature of 26 degrees Celsius for Saturday.
The weather department has predicted dense to moderate fog for Saturday and Sunday, while it has forecasted ‘rain’ and ‘thunderstorms’ for February 3 and February 4 respectively in Delhi-NCR.
The minimum temperature is expected to be around 11 degrees Celsius for the following week, while the maximum is set to hover around 23 degrees Celsius.
The national capital has witnessed a warm January so far with the month’s maximum temperature touching 21.1 degrees Celsius, a notch higher than the long-standing average of 20.1 degrees Celsius.
Meanwhile, the air quality recorded from Delhi’s Okhla weather station at 7 am stood at 354, which falls under the ‘very poor’ category. An Air Quality Index (AQI) between 300 and 400 falls under the ‘very poor’ category.