On Sunday morning, December 31, moderate to dense fog continues to cover several parts of North India, including Delhi, Uttar Pradesh and Haryana. This is expected to continue till January 4, 2024, according to the India Meteorological Department (IMD).
As per the national weather agency data, zero visibility was recorded in Jorhat (Assam), Pathankot and Bathinda (Punjab), Jammu (Jammu and Kashmir) and Agra (Uttar Pradesh). Visibility was 25 metres in Ambala (Haryana), 50 metres in Bikaner (Rajasthan), Patiala (Punjab), Chandigarh, Gwalior (Madhya Pradesh), Jhansi (Uttar Pradesh); and 200 metres in Amritsar (Punjab) and Hisar (Haryana).
In Delhi, at the Indira Gandhi International Airport, the visibility was recorded at 800 metres, affecting the flight schedules. Due to this coldwave and fog conditions in North India, several trains were running late because of the poor visibility.
The weather department said very dense fog conditions (visibility 550 metres) were very likely to prevail over several parts of Punjab during the late evening to morning hours and over West Uttar Pradesh during midnight and morning hours from December 31 (Sunday) to January 4 (Thursday). The IMD predicted similar conditions over Haryana, Chandigarh, Delhi and East Uttar Pradesh during midnight and morning hours until January 1 (Monday).
Uttarakhand may experience dense fog conditions (visibility 50-200 metres) in the early morning hours/morning hours from December 31 (Sunday) to January 4 (Thursday). Similar conditions were likely to prevail over north Madhya Pradesh, north Rajasthan and Jharkhand on December 31 (Sunday) and January 1 (Monday); Gangetic West Bengal on December 31 (Sunday), and Odisha, Bihar, Assam, Meghalaya, Mizoram and Tripura from December 31 (Sunday) to January 2 (Tuesday), added IMD.
The weather agency added that cold day conditions were very likely to be in some parts of Punjab, Haryana, and isolated pockets of Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, and north Rajasthan till December 31 (Sunday).
Talking about Central India, the IMD predicted a gradual rise in minimum temperatures by 2-3 degrees Celcius during the next two days, with significant change after that. A drop by 2-3 degrees Celsius in maximum temperatures is likely over many parts of Central and Northwest India during the next two and no significant change in minimum temperatures may occur in the rest parts of the country, said the IMD.