Everyday life has been affected as dense fog enveloped the national capital Thursday morning. According to PTI, a railway spokesperson said that 20 trains were running late by up to 4.30 hours. The meteorological department categorises ‘very dense’ fog when the visibility is between 0 and 50 metres, 51 and 200 metres of visibility is called ‘dense’, 201 and 500 ‘moderate’, and 501 and 1,000 ‘shallow’. The department said the Palam and Safdarjung airport logged visibility levels of 200 metres (dense fog) at 5.30 am.
On Tuesday, visibility levels had plunged to 50 metres at both these places. South westerly winds at the middle tropospheric level and a consequent increase in temperatures had led to some improvement on Wednesday, PTI reported.
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What is the reason behind dense fog?
Satellite images showed a dense layer of fog from Punjab and northwest Rajasthan to Bihar. Amid low temperatures, a layer of ‘dense’ to ‘very dense’ fog persisted over Haryana, west and east Uttar Pradesh as well. According to the India Meteorological Department (IMD), the fall in temperature along with moisture and light winds over the Indo Gangetic Plain has resulted in dense fog over the region.
The PTI report further stated that at 5.30 am, visibility levels stood at zero in Bhatinda; 25 metres in Ganganagar, Chandigarh, Gorakhpur and Bareilly, and 50 metres in Amritsar, Churu Bahraich and Ambala. The Met department further said that visibility levels are likely to improve from Wednesday night or Thursday morning due to “decrease in relative humidity at the lower tropospheric level over the Indo-Gangetic plains”.
Fog disrupts schedule of UP roadways buses
In another development, the Uttar Pradesh government decided that roadways buses will not run at night due to dense fog and rising mishaps caused because of it. Moreover, the online reservation of night services will also remain suspended for the next month to ensure passenger safety, state Transport Minister Dayashankar Singh said.