Thick fog engulfs capital, flights delayed

New Delhi: Delhiites were taken by surprise Thursday morning as a thick fog engulfed the capital, causing several flight delays and traffic snarls on roads.

The visibility dropped below 50 metres late Wednesday night and continued to be low till around 6 am Thursday. As many as 25 flights were delayed at the capital's Indira Gandhi International Airport (IGIA).

"Visibility on both our runways was 75 metres after 0600 hrs. Fog has caused a lot of delay in air traffic. As many as 25 flights have been delayed so far, of which a few were international flights," Anirudh Chatterjee, an IGIA official, told IANS.

"The situation has improved and now the visibility is around 200 metres," he added.

The fog also affected vehicular traffic in the early hours as cars crawled on the city's roads.

"As traffic is being affected by fog, we are helpless. The fog is expected to clear up soon and then the traffic will become normal," said SN Srivastava, joint commissioner of traffic police.

Srivastava explained that 60 metres visibility is required as braking distance while driving.

"So in the early hours when visibility dropped below 50 metres, traffic was affected," he said.

In addition to the fog, strong cold winds were blowing across the city. The situation was very different from the past week when Delhi witnessed surprisingly clear and warm weather for this time of the year.

"The fog is owing to the rain we saw in the last couple of days. So there was natural tendency of humidity to convert into fog in cold weather. The trend is likely to continue and we may see more fog towards morning for the next few days," an official at the Safdarjung met office told IANS.

The official also warned of more rain.

"It may rain again after two or three days," the met official said.

The minimum Thursday morning was 10.2 degrees Celsius, while the maximum Wednesday was 19.5 degrees Celsius.

In the next few days the minimum temperature will be around 10 degrees Celsius while the maximum could hover around 22 degrees Celsius, the official said.