BHUBANESWAR: A thick blanket of fog enveloped the Capital City on Saturday reducing the visibility to barely about 500 metres. The fog descended late on Friday and continued well into the morning hours of Saturday which affected movement of vehicular traffic though no mishap was reported.
As a result of the fog, several morning flights were late to arrive in the City. Sources in Biju Patnaik International Airport said, the Bangkok-Bhubaneswar flight was delayed by an hour. It had to remain in air from 7 am to 8 am because of the fog. Most of the early morning flights operating to the city faced a similar problem.
The Met department attributed the dense fog cover to clear skies along with southerly wind on the surface with a speed reaching 6 km/hr to 8 km/hr.
According to Director, India Meteorological Department (IMD), Odisha, Sarat Chandra Sahu the dense fog condition will prevail in the State till January 15. “This is the spell of dense fog condition. Earlier two spells had lasted for two to three days each,” Sahu said.
With the temperature rising marginally, the changed wind pattern aided the foggy condition. Minimum temperature in Bhubaneswar showed a rise and stood at 14.9 degrees Celsius on Saturday which was about three degree C higher than what prevailed during the beginning of the week. In Angul, Jharsugda, Sambalpur, Phulbani and Sundargarh, the temperature was recorded at 10 degree Celsius or less than 10 degree Celsius. In Phulbani, the temperature was 5 degrees.
“The maximum and minimum temperatures in the Capital are expected to hover around 26 degrees and 14.9 degrees respectively,” the weather department said.
Commuters in the Capital had a tough time after the dense fog enveloped the city shortly after midnight and it lasted till 7 am in the morning. People were seen driving their vehicles slowly with the headlights on to avoid any mishap.