North India shivers as mercury dips, fog reduces visibility in Delhi

Dense fog engulfed the national capital which affected the commuters and traffic during the early hours on Saturday.

Delhi recorded a maximum of 9.6 degrees Celsius at Palam, 8.9 degree in Safdarjung.

Meanwhile, the rehearsals for the January 26th, Republic Day parade were conducted at Kartavya Path as cold wave and fog continued in the national capital.

Several flights were delayed in the North India regions due to fog and harsh weather conditions.

Spicejet airline also issued an advisory to passengers on flight delay caused by fog.

"Due to expected poor visibility in Amritsar(ATQ), Jammu(IXJ), Varanasi(VNS), Gorakhpur(GOP), Patna(PAT), Jaipur(JAI), Shirdi(SAG) and Darbhanga(DBR) all departures/arrivals and their consequential flights may get affected," spicejet airline shared in a post on X.

Fog and inclement weather conditions also impacted several trains running to and from the national capital.

"My train was delayed by four to five hours, which could be due to weather conditions. A lot of trains were cancelled too due to the cold wave", said a passenger travelling from Dhanbad.

22 trains travelling towards the national capital were delayed on Friday due to fog conditions in the region.

Further, people sat by bonfires in Uttar Pradesh's Meerut city to keep themselves warm as mercury dipped.

As per IMD, the city will experience 'Dense Fog' today with the minimum temperature dropping to 7C and the maximum temperature being 18C.

Very dense fog was observed in isolated pockets of Jammu Division, West Rajasthan, Haryana-Chandigarh, East Uttar Pradesh; Dense fog in many parts of Punjab; in isolated pockets of East Madhya Pradesh, East Rajasthan; Moderate fog in isolated pockets of Uttarakhand & Tripura.

A layer of frost formed on vehicles and people lit bonfires to keep themselves as Mount Abu in Sirohi district shivers at a minimum temperature of 4C today.

A layer of fog enveloped Jaipur city this morning as mercury further dipped. As per IMD, Jaipur is to experience 'Dense or Very Dense Fog with cold day conditions' today with minimum temperature dropping to 8C and maximum temperature being 18C.

Tamil Nadu also witnessed a dense layer of fog that gripped Ooty, Kotagiri and Coonoor areas in the Nilgiris district; visibility decreased. Several areas in the district have been experiencing light rainfall as well.

The India Meteorological Department has predicted dense to very dense fog conditions over Punjab, Haryana, Chandigarh, east Rajasthan, for the next two days.

Cold-day to severe cold day conditions prevailed at many places over Haryana, few places over Rajasthan and at some Pockets over Punjab on Friday.

As per the IMD, "Dense fog conditions very likely to prevail for a few hours in morning in isolated pockets over East Uttar Pradesh during 06th-09th January; over West Madhya Pradesh, Bihar, Jharkhand, Assam & Meghalaya, Nagaland, Manipur, Mizoram & Tripura during 06th-08th January; over Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand and Odisha on 06th & 07th January."

There will be no significant change in minimum temperatures over north India during the next five days, says IMD. (ANI)